Symbiotic
by disgruntledwannabe
Summary: Kaye grew up around geniuses and prodigies and specialists, and she had never claimed to be anything like them. But they'd known one another for so long it hardly mattered what her IQ was. It was easy. It had been easy. That was before. Kaye wonders what it was that made him abandon her. Once they were an unstoppable team, but four years is a long time. LxOC
1. Prologue

Prologue | Four Years Ago.

A violent cough ripped through her chest, her whole body bending with the force of it as she was torn from a dead sleep. K tumbled sideways off of the bed, and landed on her hands and knees, the impact sharp enough to shock her out of breath even more. There was a loud roaring in her ears – a raucous crackling noise that is loud, loud, _loud_. And the noise couldn't even hold a candle to the heat.

Candle….heat…

 _Fire_.

She tried to suck in another breath, only to breathe in something thick and dirty. Another spasm from her lungs made her cough again, and as disorientated as she was Kaye knew that the building was on fire, knew she needed to _get out_.

"K! _K!"_

She squinted in the direction of the call just in time to catch the door that connected her room to the one next to it burst inward with a forceful kick from her friend. Splinters from the doorframe flew toward her, and the open door seemed as though it only served to make the room hotter, nevertheless she scrambled to her feet, and stumbled toward it.

L met her halfway, a wet dishtowel tied around the lower half of his face. His hand was quickly pressing a similarly soaked towel across her mouth. It made each lungful taste less like smoke than the one before it, and K would have sobbed in relief if she wasn't still out of breath.

"Come on, K!" he urged. "We have to move!" Already he was tugging her toward the other door, his grip on her wrist tight enough to stop blood flow. There was an edge of panic to all of his motions, as though he was struggling to keep a cool head.

K allowed him to lead the way into the blazing inferno of the hall. On the side that was closest to his room she noticed that flames had begun to eat their way across the floor, orange tongues frantically licking up the walls for further purchase. Panicked herself she picked up speed, matching L pace for pace as they bolted for the emergency staircase – thankfully located on her half of the floor.

The door opened easily under K's shoulder, and the two of them tripped their way into a concrete stairwell. Below them a horde of people was making their way down the steps with little regard for one another. Some were carrying whatever belongings they had in their arms; others appeared to be just as discombobulated as she was, falling over themselves in their pajamas.

K dug her fingers into L's forearm and yanked him back hard before he could start for the stairs. "The alarm," she said. "Where's the fire alarm?"

There was no shortage of noise. Between the people swarming downstairs, and the crackling of flames – distant now that they were closed off from them, but still very much prevalent – it occurred to K that she couldn't hear the tell-tale sirens of industrial fire alarm. Her eyes scanned the cinderblock walls and noticed for the first time that there were no emergency lights flashing either. How the hell did the fire alarm not go off?

"Someone disabled the alarm!" she declared. She began tugging him in the opposite direction, urging him to follow her up the stairs rather than down. "There's no other reason it wouldn't be going off!"

Even as keyed up as he was, L still managed to regard her seriously. "'This was deliberate then, someone set this fire on purpose!" Already she saw the gears beginning to turn behind his eyes.

"Never mind that, L!" K cried. "I mean…yes, but that's not the point! The fire hasn't reached the upper floors yet – _they don't know what's going on!"_

It was at that moment that the door above K – and only that door – swung open and a floor's worth of people barreled their way down the stairs in a panic. K shoved against the crowd, fighting her way upward with the kind of single-mindedness she rarely possessed. She squared her elbows and pushed the oncoming people out of the way with her forearms, ignoring the indignant shouts and growled swears.

It wasn't until she hit the landing – slipping through the back end of the crowd – that she realized L's shirt was no longer between her fingers.

-:-

Neither L nor K would ever be sure how exactly they were separated that night. In later years all L would recall were two things: the first, was being knocked backwards by the stampede of hotel patrons trying to escape the fire. Right away he could tell that K was no longer with him, but trampled and unbalanced he had little choice but the follow the flow of the crowd, until he found himself forced into the back of an ambulance by two very persistent EMT's who insisted he be treated for smoke inhalation.

The second was the earth-shattering moment the middle floors of the building exploded.


	2. 151,600

_A/N: Yikes. I know I'm like a million years too late with this Death Note OC story thing but goddamnit I've wanted to write this story since 2010 so here I am._

* * *

151,600

Kaye Tyler landed in Japan on November 28, 2003, and as she went about the business of going through customs, collecting her baggage, and eventually sleeping off sixteen hours' worth of jetlag 151,600 people died.

For the most part, their deaths had nothing to do with Kaye. Even if she had been aware of them there was nothing she could have done to prevent a single one. Their deaths were inevitable and, mostly, natural. In a world of 6,360,764,684, death on this scale was to be expected, and that many deaths per day was probably a fairly conservative estimate all things considered. But to say that none of the deaths that occurred on November 28th concerned Kaye Tyler at all would be disingenuous, because there were two deaths that had very much to do with her.

The reason Kurou Otoharada decided to shoot up a nursery school was never released. Yet, Mrs. Azuma, hunched low over as many children as she could fit underneath her, was the only one who heard the whispered lament for his own murdered child. A child who had never made it to nursery school and how dare other parents enjoy the luxury of seeing their babies grow up – and in that moment, she reluctantly understood what could drive a man to madness. She was glad that he had a heart attack at 4:00PM, but decided to wish him no ill-will in the afterlife. Apart from Otoharada there were no casualties.

The woman Takuo Shibuimaru harassed at 9:00PM in the middle of a corner store parking lot was not so generous, nor did she have to be. When the large semi-truck careened from around the corner and rammed squarely into Shibuimaru's motorcycle, Kisa Takahashi felt nothing but profound relief. Grip white-knuckled against the traffic light she turned around, and grimly determined that Shibuimaru looked just as disgusting smeared across the pavement.

Kaye Tyler was far too engrossed in her own dreams to even hear about either incident, and neither made any headlines the next day. However, these deaths set into motion events that, when she finally decided to face the day at 10:00AM, November 29th, had irrevocably altered the course of her life.


	3. Exposition

Chapter One | Exposition

The first thing Kaye did after she passed through customs was find a corner of the airport that was out of the way enough that she could crack every joint in her body. A few of her lower vertebrae chastised her by popping so viciously she felt the ache through the backs of her legs. It had been years since she'd had to sit through a flight that long.

Skeletal realignment complete, she threw her carryon over her shoulder and rushed to baggage claim for her other suitcase. In that moment she wanted nothing more than to find the biggest cup of coffee in the airport, and the ability to spend five minutes nursing it in relative peace before she did anything else. Unfortunately, it was the eleventh hour, and she had a little over forty minutes to make it to central Tokyo in time for her business meeting.

The entire trip had snuck up on her and her partner Anne. And by snuck up, she of course meant that she had not known she would be traveling anywhere until three days prior. The Yotsuba Corporation had their fingers in lots of pies in lots of countries. Their usual strategy when they wanted to talk to one of their daughter companies was to use Skype, or whichever main branch happened to be closest. Yet, according to Anne a pant-less Skype call would not be enough this time. Thus, it was up to Kaye to put on some "big girl panties" and get us an expansion deal ASAP please, and thank-you-very-much.

It was for the best. Probably. Jennifer-Anne "call me Apple or Anne, it's a long story don't worry about it" Coleman was a great business partner in many ways: absurdly creative, handy with finances, and came ready-made with plenty of professional contacts through her sizable family. More than that, she was quite good with people – handy considering Kaye was not what you would call a people person. In fact, the only way in which she was more qualified to make this trip than her partner was the fact that she knew Japanese.

Kaye made a point to emphasize the past tense.

Her mobile buzzed in the front pocket of her slacks. She had set an alarm fourteen hours ago to remind her to call when she landed.

"Hey!" was Anne's cheerful greeting. "So, you didn't crash and burn over the Pacific then?"

"Nope," she replied. "My dreams of occupying my own deserted island remain tragically unfulfilled."

Anne laughed in her ear. "How was the flight then?"

"Ugh, long. Couldn't sleep at all either." Kaye attempted to maneuver her way through the crowd surrounding the baggage claim with as little physical contact as possible. This was difficult considering how busy the airport was, but she gathered her suitcase with little effort. It was small, and fairly light considering she was only staying the week; it was also a violent pink, which, on the one hand, made it easier to find, but on the other, also stood out.

"Well, your meeting is in half an hour so don't even think about sleeping until you cut a deal. We're _counting_ on you."

"Uh-huh," Kaye said, only a bit distracted with dragging herself to the nearest exit. "Future of the company's on me and all that."

"You're damn right it is." The sound of Anne rummaging through something mingled with the hustle and bustle of mid-afternoon big city. Kaye took a deep lung full of air – cleaner than she was used to in both London and LA, but it still carried the unmistakable tang of a densely populated area. "Now, I'm gonna brush my teeth and head to bed, Kaye. I want you in a cab in thirty seconds, so I can wake up tomorrow with good news."

-:-

The inside of the Yotsuba building was almost made of nothing but sharp edges and chrome finish, made particularly jarring when compared to the riotous color of outside. Kaye made her way through the lobby without letting her eyes focus on any one aspect of it for too long, lest she either burn her retinas or cut them on walls that rose at sharp angles into the spacious room. Something about the reflective quality of every available surface, combined with the open floorplan, made her self-conscious of the placement of her limbs, the noise her suitcase made as she walked, and the ever-quickening patter of her heartbeat.

Despite this rapid onset of agoraphobia, Kaye strode straight-backed to the receptionists desk. She was used to being in ostracizing spaces – there were very few places that she could go where she did not feel some sense of unease.

She cleared her throat to get the receptionists attention. _"Excuse me, I have a meeting with Mr. Ooi Takashi_?"

" _Name?"_ The receptionist was pretty in a classic way that Kaye had come to associate with secretaries. She had drawn her hair back into a severe bun that Kaye was immediately envious of considering the amount of olive oil it would probably take for her to get a similar effect.

"Kaye Tyler. K-A-Y-E."

The receptionist stood and offered her a smile. "Of course, Ms. Tyler," she said, having switched to English upon hearing Kaye's name. "If you will follow me. I will lead you to his office."

 _"Thank-you very much,"_ Kaye replied. She took a moment to adjust herself, hiking her business bag further up her shoulder, and grasping the handle of her suitcase. So situated she trailed behind her guide.

Ooi Takashi's office turned out to be on the corner of the fifteenth floor, and was high enough that there was an impressive bit of view of outside. The receptionist led Kaye past the dismissive glances of Takashi's cubicle workers, and directed to sit between the open office door and Takashi's metal desk.

The man himself was instantly recognizable. He appeared at the end of the room Kaye had just been led through accompanied by a few more suit-clad men. A head taller than anyone else in the room, Ooi Takashi was a veritable wall of muscle capped with a no-nonsense demeanor and a shiny scalp. From thirty feet away Kaye could tell he had a firm handshake; she could also tell that his outward joviality masked the sharpness of his smile.

Both assumptions were confirmed when he entered the room with her. _"You must be Ms._ _Tyler_ _,"_ he greeted with flashing teeth. Kaye bowed in acknowledgement, of both his assumption and culture, and accepted the proffered hand he gave in deference to hers. _"Good, good, we have much to discuss."_

Kaye did not make eye-contact when she said, "I hope we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement."

-:-

The hotel room she found herself in was almost Spartan. There was only enough room for the bed itself, but someone had been able to find the room to squeeze in a bedside table next to the closet. It was definitely the kind of room someone stayed in when they did not want to spend too much time indoors. Not that that was what Kaye had had in mind when she'd booked the hotel (no, the constraints of her bank account were much more influential), and not that it had mattered to her at the time because she was much too exhausted to pay attention to her surroundings.

Kaye threw herself onto the narrow bed without bothering to undress. The zipper of her slacks (already a bit too tight) cut into her stomach, and she honestly wondered if it was worth being vertical for two seconds just to take them off. It wasn't like she was that uncomfortable. Blindly she toed her shoes, and heard them clatter to the floor before the sleepiness she had been fighting all day completely dragged her under.

Kaye had never been particularly prone to fanciful thoughts. (It could possibly be said that she indulged in them far more than the people she grew up with, but to be honest she had always considered her personal mindscape mighty bland in comparison.) But that night she dreamed.

 _Gray skies over the grounds of a sprawling blue mansion…itself distorted…walking along the grounds hearing the playful banter of two children arguing…was it ever really that color? she entered from a door in the second floor that did not exist…into a sepia-toned hotel room, confronted with the smell of hot coffee and doughnuts…Saturday, then…the mug is bright red and when she picks it up…she bites into an apple._


	4. Broadcast

_A/N:_ _L's Broadcast was directly transcribed from the English dub of the anime, and then tampered with._ _Kaye knows Japanese, but is not completely fluent in the language, so occasionally she misses parts of sentences, gets tenses wrong, or has a tendency to paraphrase larger chunks of information into what she thinks they mean rather than what was said verbatim._

Chapter Two | Broadcast

"I'm not kidding Kaye; it's not safe there."

Kaye flashed a smile at the barista, and squished her mobile under her chin so she could grasp the coffee cup between two palms. It was almost hot enough to burn her skin. "The killings haven't only been in Japan, Anne." Dark as sin, more sugar than not. She did not usually take her coffee this way. "Besides, we already booked my return flight for tomorrow, so there's no point in me coming back any sooner."

"What if they don't stop with criminals? What if they start killing anyone they don't like?"

"There's no way to predict that." And there wasn't. This "Kira" had been killing long enough to get noticed, but he was consistent enough that Kaye was certain his motive did not include anyone he bumped into on the street. That said, he had been killing for a week at best, and already there was a body count almost near the triple digits – a week was hardly enough time to determine anything definitive about someone so…gung-ho about killing. "I've got one thing on my record, and it's a DUI from before I knew what jagerbombs were. I've been fine for this long, and I'm not even here another twenty-four hours. It'll be fine."

She chose an out of the way corner of the cafe to settle down. She curled her knees so she took up less space, and made sure her back was to the wall so that no one would try and fondle her hair. It was a cozy little place that went almost unnoticed even in the bustle of afternoon Tokyo. She had happened upon it after she had woken up from her jet-lag crash – had stumbled in at two in the morning looking for a caffeine fix – and had been pleasantly surprised by the warm décor and stellar coffee; the baked goods were none too shabby either. It was easy to get in the habit of hitting it up at least once a day.

Anne's sigh was heavy along the line. "I hope you're right about that."

"Of course I am," she replied. "I finally got us the deal with Yotsuba yesterday, it's already fine."

"I have a bad feeling about this Kaye."

"It's only a feeling Anne."

"I hope you're right about that too." Anne sighed again. "Take care of yourself Kaye."

There was a short click when Anne hung up, and the line disconnected. Kaye's nose scrunched up in response. Despite the course of their conversation, Kaye was affected by the events of the past week. They had presented themselves to her with a certain amount of inevitability, as they made headlines and completely dominated the public discourse. (She had been asked what she thought of Kira no less than five times since she had arrived.) All heart attacks, no poison, no weapon, no evidence. Already cults had begun to pop up all over the world, and Kaye could not even log onto her email without seeing evidence of the criminal killer all over the Internet. It was more than a little disgusting.

It was an…intriguing case, she supposed – if she had to put a word to it. Under different circumstances she too would shove herself up the ass of everything Kira. But the fact of the matter was that while she liked to imagine herself gradually turning into Miss Marple with age, she was not in any way a real detective, so there was hardly any point in her getting involved. And Kira would take the world's best detective to catch. As the body count rose, and the stakes along with it, there was only one way that this could go. She had mixed feelings about the ending.

 _"We'd like to apologize for the interruption._ _As of now, we're bringing you a live, worldwide broadcast from the ICPO._ _"_

She took a fortifying sip of her coffee. Ah, there it was.

The interruption came from a small television propped up on a short stack of cookbooks behind the coffee counter. From where she was sitting she was unable to see much of what was happening onscreen, it was too far away. She squinted and leaned forward to try and make up some of the difference. The fuzzy picture cleared enough for her to make out a figure. He had black hair oiled down to his shoulders, and remained behind a desk with a nameplate reading "Lind L. Tailor".

Memories flickered in her mind's eye: the smell of unwashed bodies, cold stone and children crying. She could taste the nausea building up in her gut even after all this time. She had had nightmares for years.

" _I head up an…police…which includes all…nations._ _I am Lind L. Tailor…known as L."_

Her Japanese was not practiced enough for her to catch every word, but she thought she heard enough. There was a moment where everything seemed to fall into place. Kaye was positive she knew what was going to happen next, and she felt herself recoil instinctively from that sort of clarity. She did not want to watch anyone die on television, but she supposed there were people far less suited for execution. And she would be lying to herself if she claimed she had never fantasized about this man's death. (She had done plenty of that when she was thirteen and unable to get a full night's sleep because he was _still alive_ and therefore could still come for her.)

To make a spectacle of his death though? They had flirted with the darker side of morality before, but for him to have deemed this necessary…

 _"_ _I will not stop until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice…Kira, I have a pretty good idea what your…might be and I can guess what you hope to achieve._ _But, what you are doing right now is evil."_

She tuned back into the broadcast. Her heart was pounding. There was something about hearing his words in Tailor's voice that disgusted her. But the only thing that managed to break through her focus on the television was her own inner mantra of, Oh god no. Everyone around her was in much the same way: hanging on to every word of the broadcast, waiting with baited breath for what would happen next.

And then it came. Kaye witnessed Kira's sadistic power first hand.

Almost in slow motion, Tailor gripped the left side of his chest with both hands, a surprised grunt of pain escaping his throat. Even from far away Kaye saw the strain around his forehead, as the tendons in his neck threatened to burst from his skin. His eyes, nauseatingly familiar, glittered in surprise as they gazed at one another through the television. The sound of Lind L. Tailor's body finally slumping, motionless, in his chair seemed to echo throughout all of Tokyo. She clenched her teeth around a gasp that would have been far too loud in the dead silence of the café.

She had to hand it to him. He'd always managed to surprise her no matter the situation and no matter how well she had known him. This time, though, this situation, was hardly a pleasant surprise. Kaye took another gulp of scorching coffee to try and push down the bile that threatened to come up. The sweetness of the beverage erased the bitter taste of sick, but did very little to discourage the ever-increasing impulse to vomit.

 _"_ _Huh, I had to test this…but…I-I never thought it would…happen."_ There it was. The white background with the Cloister Black L in the middle flashed on the screen, accompanied by a synthetic voice that made Kaye tense in her seat. While she was grateful that Tailor's body was no longer on display, it had been so long since she had seen evidence of his existence that it took all her self-control to choke back a tidal wave of emotion. " _Kira, it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person._ _I would not believe it if I had not just witnessed it. Listen…Kira._ _If…kill Lind L. Tailor, who you just saw die on television I should tell you that he was a… (criminal who was going to die today?)._ _That was not me._ _The police…you would not have heard about him on TV or the Internet._ _It appears that not even you (know?) of these criminals._

 _"But…L is real, I exist._ _Here…try to kill me!"_

Kaye's teeth came down so hard on her bottom lip they cut right through the soft flesh. She tasted copper, but had no attention to spare for her own blood – all of it was attuned to the crazed detective that was baiting a supernatural serial killer on live television. He taunted Kira as though they were two children bullying one another in a schoolyard, and Kaye was, for the life of her, unable to figure out why he would take such a foolhardy risk.

 _"_ _Well, Kira, it seems that you cannot kill me after all."_ A wave of profound relief rushed through her, followed by an irrational, burning anger that made her slam her coffee down on the table in front of her. The loud clatter of the cup broke the enraptured stare of the two at the table nearest her – a couple whose date was no doubt ruined – who gave her wary glances. _"_ _So, there are some people you can't kill…I'll tell you something that you will find interesting._ _(We said this was?) a worldwide broadcast, but, we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan… I know where you are._

 _"The police thinks your first kill is unrelated but…first of your victims was a suspect in Shinjuku._ _Out of all the criminals who recently die of (heart attacks?), this one's crime was (not?) serious._ _His crime was only ever reported inside Japan._ _I used that (to figure out?): you are in Japan and your first victim…an experiment._ _Which means that you haven't been killing for very long_ _._

 _"We decided to broadcast in Kanto first because it is large…we found you._ _To be completely honest with you I never expected things could go this well, but it won't be too long now before I am able…to death._

 _"Of course, (I want to know how you kill without being present?), but I don't mind waiting..._ _You can answer all of my questions when I catch you._ _Let's meet again soon…Kira."_ And then there was static _._

-:-

Kaye managed to make it all the way back to her hotel room before she vomited. Apart from the few mouthfuls of coffee, there was very little for her body to force back up and so she ended up mostly dry heaving over the toilet. Finally, after what felt like hours, she collapsed backwards, her entire body shaking from head to toe. A thinly-plastered wall was the only thing that kept her at all upright, and the only reason she did not move was because it took too much energy.

Tailor's surprised gaze locked eyes with Kaye in the reflection of the toilet bowl. That could have easily been L too, and she would really be alone then…

Oh god, she was going to be sick again.

It was another ten minutes before she came out of the restroom – still shaking, but much more stable than earlier. Whether the after-image of Tailor's lifeless body, or the bizarre mix of resentment-wrath-loneliness-nostalgia that roiled under her diaphragm was the thing knocking her off-balance she could not tell.

Former, she decided when she saw Tailor's dying expression once again. Definitely the former.

She kept her stomach down that time.

But the fact that the source of her illness was a dead man did not rid her of the other problem. The problem that her current emotional instability was caused by a very much alive man. A very much alive man who had brushed elbows with his own mortality that afternoon.

It had been four years since she had seen L. It had been four years since she had known anything of him.

And god help her, even through the overwhelming resentment she still cared about the bastard.

Not that he gave a damn about her. She came to terms with that a long time ago. It had taken longer than she cared to admit, and a grueling amount of physical therapy, but in time she had built an entire life from the ground up. A life she scrounged for alone in an unfamiliar country. A life that was far, far away from him, and anything he had ever touched, because even though it was confusing and made no sense, in four years he had not tried to get in touch with her once.

The real kicker was that Kaye had not made herself difficult to find. How could she? Watari would not find her if she made it too difficult.

If they separated, whether or not it was by choice, the rule was to stay put until Watari came. If Watari didn't come then it wasn't safe to move. It was a pair of rules she had memorized when she was twelve. They were part of a larger set, but were deemed the most important of the bunch. It was six months before Kaye tried breaking them; seven before she even considered the possibility L and Watari weren't finding her on purpose; a year when she gave up on them entirely. Letting go hurt worse than the burns.

None of that meant that she wanted to see L die. Maybe it had in the beginning, and maybe irritating old wounds was not the best of ideas, but the more she considered the events of today the more her loneliness overpowered any lingering resentment. Her right hand flew to her chest; she pressed down hard as though she could somehow smother the sudden sensation of something hollow seizing right in the middle of her breastbone, sharp and achy and she almost doubled over with the force of it. She missed him, she missed him, _she missed him_.

And he was there. Well, his voice had been. But the most interesting mystery of the century was unfolding itself in the middle of Japan, and, if she had ever known him at all, there was nothing on this earth that could keep him from coming here to tackle it. If she were a betting woman she'd say he arrived before she had…

No. She slammed the door on that train of thought. No. She did not want to see him. Even entertaining the thought of finding him was bad news.

But…if that broadcast had been any indication, there was a good chance that L was far more prone to recklessness than he had been when she'd known him…and she still did not wish him dead…

She could stay in Japan for a few more days surely? Not, she assured herself, to find him, but to make sure he didn't off himself prematurely. It was probably a good idea for her to keep an eye on things.

Kaye stopped that train of thought too. She had not spent the past four years of her life picking up the shattered remains of the first twenty, all to piss it away the second she knew she and L were in the same city. There was no chance she'd go out to find him. No chance in hell.

-:-

On December 6th, 2003, Kaye Tyler slept well into the morning. Her flight back to Los Angeles California took off without her.


	5. Misora

_A/N: Ayyyyy so we finally getting to see some actual Death Note characters in this story! I promise that Light and L and the Task Force start popping up in that order throughout the next three chapters.  
Also to the guest that left that review: never apologize for your English honey you're doing absolutely fantastic; thank-you so much for your review!_

* * *

Chapter Three | Misora

Naomi Misora was not an unhappy woman, necessarily. She was just unused to being a kept one.

Being with Raye was everything she had wanted since she was a little girl. Her father would smile indulgently while toddler-Naomi paraded around their living room in an overlarge apron, a cooking spoon clutched in her little fist when she played house. Her mother once provided her with a small tea set for playing hostess. All throughout middle school she gossiped with her friends, and daydreamed about the kind of guy she would one day marry.

When she applied to high school she did not expect to fall in love with police-work.

She had likewise not expected to fall in love with leather jackets and motorcycles, but that also happened somewhere along the line. Ten years later she worked for the FBI as one of their most competent rookie agents, and while the constant underestimation from her male peers bordered on patronizing, she had long-since cemented her right to be there by that point. A fact that Raye was well acquainted with by the time they met.

Ten years and a move to the United States had provided Naomi Misora with both fierce competence and stubborn independence. All the same, as much as she loved her job she had not meant to become career-oriented, and sub-consciously she considered it Plan B. When Raye had proposed her first thought was that Naomi Penber had a nice ring to it. She hadn't thought twice about quitting the FBI to start a family.

Except she had. A lot.

"You've been what?"

Naomi's grip on the frying pan loosened in surprise. The piece of crockery clattered onto the burner, splattering hot butter onto her unprotected hand. Hissing in pain, she rushed to get it under water. Raye met her gaze over the running tap, a crease forming between his brows. Worried.

He came around the breakfast bar to take her injured hand between his. "The director said L requested twelve of his best agents to investigate a case in Japan," he said, examining the slight redness of her knuckles. "He called me in this afternoon, said my supervisor put in a good word for me."

Naomi snatched her hand back. "This is about the Kira Case, isn't it?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it," her fiancé replied, "but I doubt it's about anything else."

Her next breath was a huff. "And I suppose it would be too dangerous for me to go to Japan with you, right?" The question was pointed. He knew very well that Naomi was more than capable of taking care of herself. She also suspected he knew she was irritated that _she_ wasn't the one being assigned to investigate Kira. Because she had retired, because she _wanted_ a family.

Raye was silent.

"Look, Raye," she began. "If you're going to investigate Kira I need to be with you." She held up her hand when it looked like he was going to interrupt. " _Not_ , because I want to investigate as well, but because I worry about you."

The corners of Raye's eyes softened, and his shoulders lost some of the tension they had carried since he'd come home. "I know you do," he said. "But don't think I haven't noticed that you've been distracted lately."

"Just let me come with you," she pleaded. She wanted to ignore his accusations, but he was right. It was frustrating how right he was. She was unused to having a breadwinner so she could stay at home with the housework. Naomi was constantly left trying to find a reprieve from the boredom of it all, and recently she had been letting more and more of it fall by the wayside. "I promise I won't try to help you with the investigation. I won't talk about Kira at all," she tried.

Her fiancé's eyes narrowed.

Dropping eye-contact, she switched tactics. "Besides, you still need to meet my parents. If I come I can finally introduce you."

Raye was quiet. She almost thought he had left the kitchen entirely until Naomi suddenly found herself enveloped in a tight hug. It was easy to tuck her head underneath Raye's chin and let the irritation bleed away every time she inhaled his cologne. She relaxed in his arms, and the pain in her chest came completely from concern.

"Okay," he whispered into her hair. "Okay, you can come. But I don't want to hear a single word about Kira. You're coming to introduce me to your parents; there's no need for you think about things like that."

Naomi nodded her assent into his chest. She could ignore Kira if it meant being there with Raye. How hard could it be?

-:-

Kaye chose the most offensive tabloid to use as an umbrella.

 _L VS. KIRA! CAN CYBER SHERLOCK BEAT GOD?_

Her lip curled when she read it, but it was worth the thousand yen to ruin if not to read. _You would think they'd have run out of things to say_ , she thought, unfolding it so it would cover her hair fully. It had been almost a month since L's broadcast, and nothing had changed. Kira was killing criminals faster than ever, and, so far as anyone could tell, L had been doing nothing to stop him.

She strode out into the open, headline facing skyward, enjoying the way the ink of the paper blotted in the rain.

Kaye was on her way to an internet café up the road from the hostel where she was staying. It was one of the better places to go for accurate information on the Kira Investigation. Its primary patrons, apart from Kaye, were composed of four overtired grad-students from To-Oh University, and a weedy techie who spent far too much time with the machines. He was the one she was really headed to see.

The inside of the café was cramped and dingy, with black walls, and only six computers squeezed against opposite ends of the room. Walking in from the chill of outside was like tripping head-first into America's muggiest summer, and the whirring of overworked computer towers were the whining cicadas. The single room was only ever lit by the harsh glow of the monitors, and provided seating solely in the form of uncomfortable wooden chairs. On the whole, it had more than likely been on the verge of going out of business for longer than Kaye had been coming.

 _"That's five-hundred today, miss."_ The man behind the counter didn't look up from his own newspaper.

But that meant the fees were cheap, and she was on a tight budget.

Her first breath smelled uncomfortably of something burning. Kaye held her breath and scanned the room for any signs of smoke or flame. It wasn't that she didn't trust the three people already seated inside. It was only that she knew far too well how fast fire could spread. Finding nothing more alarming than one of the students' mountain of empty energy drinks she dropped five-hundred yen in front of the owner and stepped all the way inside.

Her man was in the back left corner computer. He was typing furiously over his keyboard so he didn't hear her arrive. Kaye tried getting his attention by lobbing her wet newspaper in the bin next to his chair, but either he was ignoring her or far too engrossed in his project.

The answer was in fact the former. _"If you're going to stay then pull up a chair."_ He instructed. _"I don't know why you keep coming here. Nothing has changed."_

Kaye shrugged. _"I like to hear news. You are great at knowing news."_ She gestured to the soggy tabloid, but he did not follow the motion. _"They miss many details."_

 _"I think…you are looking to find something,"_ he told her. The glow from the computer gave his dark eyes an almost otherworldly shine. _"It's okay if you are. A lot of people are looking at Kira for a sign."_

Kaye considered his profile. She didn't know his name, and he didn't know hers, but he had introduced himself to her by plugging her mouse into the monitor the first time she'd come in. He had noticed her recording a timetable of Kira activity. _"He is killing very specifically don't you think?"_ He had asked.

Kaye had agreed, but without knowing L's side of the case there was no way to tell what Kira was responding to.

 _"I do not want to find."_ She replied.

He chuckled. _"If you say so."_ His fingers clacked across the keys. The computer screen became darker, as he finally switched pages. The new webpage was almost entirely black apart from the heading, which sported the kanji for Kira in stark white across the top. If Kaye were to put a word to the design she would be forced to settle for 'gothic'. _"Kira killed fifty criminals in the last few days. He has begun staggering his killings again."_

 _"I think December tenth was special. There was a different thing, and Kira made different kills."_ She pulled a small moleskin and pen out of her pocket. It had been long enough since December tenth that she had to flip back for a few pages. _"On ten and eleven he murder one every hour. Kira was…"_ she struggled finding the right phrase, _"giving L a hint."_

Kira was fishing. That much seemed apparent. He had to be showing off somehow, and there was no way that L would let that stand. Damn, if he hadn't come to Japan to make the broadcast then he was now there for certain.

She had been hoping, in vain, that this would be the kind of case that he would not want to be in the middle of. Even some of his more challenging cases had been solved in the comfort of a hotel room thousands of miles from the scene of the crimes themselves. Since there was no evidence that Kira needed to be anywhere near his intended victims, Kaye wanted to believe that L could leave well enough alone and stay put.

But a killer that had the gall to tease? That was someone worth meeting.

She closed her moleskin and sighed. So much for avoiding temptation. _"You are right. There is no change."_ The only way for her to gather new information at that point would be to find L himself. And there was still no way she was doing that.

Her companion rummaged around the side of his monitor and pulled something wrapped in grease paper. He passed it to her.

Inside was a kare pan – a Japanese curry bun. It was lukewarm, because it had likely been sitting there for a while. Still the bread was golden brown, and she had not gotten around to eating that day. The gesture made the corners of her lips tick up. _"Thank you very much,_ " she smiled.

 _"It's no trouble,"_ he insisted.

Before Kaye turned to leave, his hands stuttered on the keyboard. _"You know…"_ he began, then paused to contemplate his next words, _"…everybody is looking to find something. Even if they think they're not. I don't know if you are avoiding something, but I hope you find what you're looking for."_

Grease paper crinkled in her tightened grip. _"I am not looking for anything."_

 _"I hope something finds you then."_

Her smile dropped. Something finding her was the last thing she would want. _"Thank you for the kare pan,"_ she hissed. The fact that the door to the internet café could not slam behind her was frustrating, but at least it was no longer raining.

Kaye stormed down the pavement, chomping hard on the curry bun in time with her footsteps. Who did he think he was anyway? He was a nerd with a knack for computers, not a mysterious old man about to send her on a quest. He did not know a damn thing about her life, or her reasons for not seeking L out. Hell, he didn't even know it was L she was trying to watch out for; from the beginning he had been convinced that she was a conflicted Kira worshipper, and far be it from her to correct those assumptions.

"Excuse-me, excuse-me. Ma'am!"

If the call hadn't been in English, Kaye would not have turned around. She was far too embedded in her own head. But the English immediately caught her attention.

Kaye stopped her furious stomping to take in her surroundings. Across the street was a woman in a leather jacket, a plastic bag hanging around one wrist and her other hand in the air. As soon as Kaye met her gaze she was jogging around the street traffic to join her.

Kaye scarfed down the bite of food she had been in the middle of taking. It scraped the sides of her throat the whole way down, but she was able to speak to the woman without her mouth full.

"Hi?" The greeting came out a question. She was too befuddled to regulate her tone. For all she had spent the past few weeks worrying about running into someone she knew in Japan, she had not imagined being recognized. There were few people who had seen her enough to recognize her on the street. "Um…I don't want to be rude but…do I know you?"

The woman gave a shallow bow. "I'm sorry. I thought you might recognize me."

Kaye looked her over. There wasn't a single sign of wave in her long black hair, and she had warm hazel eyes that Kaye did not have to angle her head to meet. Pretty though she was, there was not very much about her that would make her stand out. Nonetheless, there was indeed something familiar in the lines of her face, that Kaye had a difficult time placing it.

"Did we…have we worked together before?" Kaye hedged.

The other woman lit up immediately. "Yes! Yes, we did! It was a few years ago now, but I knew it had to be you especially –" she seemed to catch herself. It was almost as if she doubted what she was telling Kaye. "I used to be an FBI agent?" she offered.

It was the catalyst that sparked recognition. _Of course_. "Miss Misora!" she gasped. "From the Wara Ningyo Murders." It was a wonder she had not seen it sooner.

They had met because it was too dangerous for either her or L to conduct fieldwork for the murders in question personally. These…these particular deaths had hit far too close to home – had been conducted by someone that they had thought they'd known well. And to top it off his homicides had taken place on the heels of another crushing emotional blow.

Kaye was never sure what had been B's motive; she hadn't seen him since his arrest, and doubted she ever would. But at the start of it all it had been Kaye's responsibility to find an agent that could move for them. They had picked Naomi Misora.

"The LABB case, yes! It is you then," Misora said, relieved. "I was worried about saying anything…specific."

"It's okay," Kaye assured her, "we were never technically involved." It was…easy, almost uncomfortably so, to slip back into referring to herself as a part of a unit. "There's no record of us even being in LA at the time."

"But, you were right? Both of you?"

Kaye giggled. "Kudos for knocking him down the stairs. I wouldn't've been that generous."

Misora rubbed the back of her neck with a nervous laugh. "I was never sure. I thought he might have been, but then I could never work out why he would look so much like Ryuzaki."

Kaye had nothing to say to that. In actuality, it was the other way around: B looked a lot like L. However, she supposed it would be different for someone who had met them in the wrong order.

Her brow furrowed in confusion as an earlier part of the conversation caught up with her. "Retired?" she questioned.

Misora shifted her weight. "Yes, I retired a few months ago, to start a family. My fiancé and I thought about kids and…well, he thought it would be better if our future children didn't have two parents in the FBI. Actually," here Misora rustled the plastic bag, "I should probably be getting back to him now."

"Right," Kaye said, not sure what a corner store bag had to do with her fiancé. "Um, well…it was nice seeing you?"

"Wait!" Misora slipped a hand into her purse. She dug around for a few seconds before pulling out a pen and small slip of paper. "Here, this is my cell phone number. I know this is very forward, and that I'm just a civilian now, but if you or," she lowered her voice, "L, need help with…with anything just give me a call."

Kaye took the scrap paper gently. Since the numbers were not written on a flat surface, Misora's handwriting had come out shaky. Kaye studied it carefully so she would not have to look the other woman in the eye.

Finally, she took a deep breath. "We'll keep you in mind, Miss Misora."

-:-

It would be a few days before Kaye looked at Naomi Misora's phone number again. Later she would be not be able to work out why, apart from guilt, but she picked up her own phone and sent Misora a single text:

 **Misora,  
Unfortunately, it does not look like we will be in need of civilian help during this investigation. However, if you have any information, or in the event of an emergency, feel free to contact me at this number.  
K**

She received no reply.


	6. Fast-Forward

Chapter Four | Fast-Forward

The first of January ushered in a massive amount of stress, a cold front, and the unfortunate reality that Kaye could not continue to lie to herself.

It was late afternoon when Kaye managed to sit down and consider all of her options. She settled down in the café where she had heard L's broadcast, picking apart a honey cake with a plastic fork and not eating a bite of it.

The easiest course of action would be to leave Japan.

Extending her stay had taken very little effort the first few weeks. She was already there on a long-term work visa, and the most she had had to convince Anne of was that she was looking for prospective places for the brand-new Japanese branch of their business to settle down.

"Bloody hell, Anne, you know that I'm going to be the one coming here to oversee it," she had told her partner. At the time, she had just kicked herself out of her hotel, determined to find cheaper accommodations for a longer-term situation. "You have been thinking about sending me since Takashi suggested the venture; it's why you wanted me to come here for _this_ trip. Listen, I've missed my flight, and I have ninety days before I need a visa. I'll just stay a week or two longer to find a place for the shop, maybe scope around for a future apartment. I don't plan on getting arrested, Anne; Kira can't touch me."

That had been the end of it, at least for a little while. Anne had reluctantly agreed, and had sent her the details of a realtor she had contacted for their move. It was much earlier than either of them had planned, but it allowed Kaye free mobility throughout Tokyo _and_ a legitimate reason for being there. All that was required of her was to send Anne the pictures of the properties she was "considering".

But three weeks had come and gone. Anne had been emailing her five times a day, on average, and had even resorted to leaving her increasingly distressed voicemails despite the international call rate when Kaye did not answer. Her deadline to obtain a visa was not set to expire for another month yet, but she was finding it harder and harder to convince herself to stay put when L had made no other grand gestures in an attempt to bait Kira out of hiding.

So, if she really wanted to stay in Japan for the duration of the case, she would need to go with the second option and actually find him.

It was inevitable. She had known the moment she decided to stay in Japan that she would, eventually, be forced into finding him – even more so if she honestly wanted to keep him from doing something else monumentally stupid, which _she did_. Of course, denying that had seemed like the only course of action she could take at the time, because that was so much better than confronting him in any capacity.

Then again, Kaye should have known from the beginning that denial had never served anybody particularly well.

Alright, so she had to find L. She could do that. (Hopefully.) But…finding L meant getting involved, and getting involved meant putting herself straight in the path of the most dangerous mass murderer the world had ever seen.

Kaye maneuvered the cake crumbs around the plate. That was…serious. It was at least very serious. And certainly deserved more than a few minutes' worth of consideration on her part. Probably.

Groaning she scooped a sloppy forkful into her mouth. The demolished cake was still fluffy and moist, despite having been exposed to air for almost an hour, and her stomach growled as soon as the crumbs hit her tongue. Only half of the next bite made it into her mouth. Glancing around to make sure none of the staff noticed, she brushed the crumbs from her lap and onto the floor.

At this point any protests she made were due to her own emotional hang-ups. Danger was not something she had ever been in the habit of shying from before, and likewise confrontation was something she liked to consider herself pretty damn familiar with – even if she would always rather avoid it. If she had thought for a moment that she could keep an eye out for the world's greatest detective and _not_ be in the same room as him she was –

 _BZZZZZZ! BZZZ-BZZZ!_

\- delusional.

Her buzzing phone brought her out of her introspection more effectively than she suspected anything else would have. The only person that would be trying to reach her there was, or should have been, sound asleep. Curiously, she scooped the phone from her purse, flipping it open in the same motion.

"Kaye Tyler speaking."

The only answer was a hiccupping sob on the other end of the line.

Kaye straightened in her chair, ears straining for some other indication that the person who called her was in trouble. "Hello?" she asked, voice hard but not unkind.

"I-I'm sorry, I di-didn't know who else to c-call."

Thick with tears though the voice was Kaye recognized it quicker than she had in person.

"Miss Misora?" Kaye checked to make sure no one was seated around her. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Raye," Misora gasped for breath, "my fiancé was murdered by K-Kira."

-:-

Kaye jogged across the plaza directly in front of the NPA building. The cold weather burned her lungs, but going any slower was not an option. Naomi Misora was waiting for her on the front step of the building proper, eyes drawn, and pacing back and forth impatiently.

"I don't understand why we have to go through the NPA," Misora said by way of greeting.

Kaye bit her lip. "I promise I'll explain later."

"Does L not know you're here?" Misora questioned.

"Um," Kaye nodded, "something like that." She pulled open the door and allowed Misora to walk in ahead of her. "I promise it's not what you're thinking."

"Are you in active contact with him?"

"No…"

Misora stalled in the lobby. She turned on her heel to face Kaye, who was walking about a pace behind the other woman. Kaye did not stop suddenly enough to avoid walking into her. "You promised you could help me," she accused.

Kaye wanted to reach out and place a hand on her shoulder. The other woman's shoulders were drawn, and there was a stain on the thigh of her jeans that suggested she was wearing yesterday's pair. But her eyes. Kaye had seen a lot of sorrow in her life – had likewise experienced more than her fair share – and thus it had never been a mystery to her why grief-filled eyes were always described as having an extinguished light. It was visible how deeply Misora was grieving her fiancé

But Naomi Misora was something else entirely. Kaye met her eyes squarely and saw, not the defeated dimness of grief, but rather a bright spark of determination hidden behind a few sleepless nights and unshed tears. Keeping Misora's gaze she spoke as convincingly as she could, "I can."

Misora's eyes flickered. "Okay," she said. "I believe you."

She was the one who broke Kaye's stare. There was a newfound set to her shoulders and she marched straight-backed to the front desk. " _We're here to speak to someone from the Special Investigations Department."_

Kaye stayed a few steps back, content to let Misora do the talking for the time being. There was nothing she could do until they saw a task force representative anyway. With nothing immediate to do she felt her palms begin to sweat as the man behind the desk picked up a phone.

It was a more potent nervousness than her usual brand. Rather than feeling like someone was scrutinizing her every movement, she felt like she was about to nosedive off of a hundred-foot cliff. In a way she was – if other people were a sheer drop to certain death – and a significant, macabre portion of her was imagining that a seven year old DUI was enough to win her a heart attack.

" _I'm sorry ma'am, but no one is answering."_

Misora was leaning forward over the lip of the counter urgently. _"Try again please_ ," she pleaded, _"this is important."_

The man picked the phone back up, casting a doubtful look between the two of them. Kaye raised an eyebrow in response. An obvious foreigner may not be a common sight at NPA headquarters but she was willing to bet that they received grieving family often enough that he should really be more courteous. Conscious of her stare the receptionist turned his entire attention to dialing the phone.

Misora gave her a small, grateful smile over her shoulder, and Kaye left her to it, satisfied.

 _He won't be here at headquarters_ , she determined. The few times that he'd worked with the police he had avoided being in their physical presence as much as he could. No, that is…was…had been her job. Of course, sometimes those things couldn't be helped, and as teenagers they had taken great pleasure in sneaking away from Watari to conduct their own investigating.

Even if L wasn't here Watari would more than likely be. Especially, if this was the main base for the Task Force. With Kaye gone he was probably acting as L's liaison – continuing on in the roll that she had begun to fill at eighteen.

But she _wasn't_ going to think about that.

The lobby had begun to fill up with people in the few minutes that they'd been there. Haggard NPA employees that barely spared one another a second of consideration. A few of them – more than a few actually – gave her curious glances as they passed, but none of them attempted to find out why she was there. Altogether, a fairly unremarkable group of overworked police officers…

…and one remarkably young one striding confidently toward the same receptionist she and Misora were bothering.

 _"I'm sorry ma'am, but there isn't anyone answering,"_ said the receptionist. _"If you could give me a name and contact information, I would be happy take a message for you."_

Kaye turned her back on the young man approaching the desk, and approached it herself. She closed the distance between her and Misora in a few strides and offered the receptionist a tired grin.

 _"I am sorry,"_ she said. _"We need to speak in person. It is very important."_

 _"We have new information that might be helpful"_ Misora added. They had what now?

Kaye had not been aware of this. Though, the more she thought about it the more it made sense that even if it was not technically true, it was a good lie to get them in to talk to someone in person.

 _"I'm sorry,"_ the receptionist was saying, _"but there's no one answering the phone. I don't think anyone is up there_."

Kaye figured it was about time for the two of them to cut their losses and try again later. She placed the tips of her fingers on Misora's shoulder, softly so she would not startle the other woman, but still firm enough to grab her attention.

Misora shrugged her off. _"Please, we need to speak directly to someone form the Special Investigations Force – it's urgent."_

Kaye had worked enough retail jobs in her life to realize that his patience was wearing thin. There were telltale signs in the tightness around the lines of his mouth, and the hunching of his shoulders – as though he were bracing himself for a fight.

 _"I'm sorry ma'am. I could call them one more time for you, but as I already mentioned, nobody at Task Force Headquarters is answering."_

 _"Excuse me,"_ another voice cut in, _"I'm Yagami Light. My father is Chief …Yagami; I'm here to drop off some clothes for him, but it doesn't seem like he's in?_ "

Misora and Kaye turned in unison. It was not a surprise to see that the young man had indeed been approaching the counter as she had suspected. In his hand he clutched a medium-sized paper bag which he placed on the reception desk.

 _"Of course,"_ the receptionist perked up immediately, the irritated set of his brow smoothing as he shifted his focus to the newcomer. " _I haven't seen you around in a while Light."_

'Light' appeared caught off guard by the man's use of his first name, " _Uh…I'm sorry?"_ he apologized. His voice ticked up ever so slightly at the end, creating a perfectly pitched inquisition.

In fact, now that he was closer, Kaye's initial opinion of "young" expanded to include "perfect" and "composed". Expertly composed in fact – it couldn't be later than eight thirty in the morning and he did not move with same morning-tired slope to his shoulders that she and everybody else in the building had.

" _…don't recognize me?"_ the receptionist teased. " _I was here during the…investigation."_ And Kaye had to have misheard that one.

" _Oh! I'm so sorry; I'm bad with faces."_

She feels her companion tense as the receptionist's attention is diverted, and that makes Kaye more alert in turn. Understandable, all things considered. Kaye honestly did not blame her for her agitation, especially if her fiancé had been killed by Kira, and really who would lie about something like that? No, Naomi Misora's anxiousness to get into contact with L was in direct opposition to her own anxiety about the matter, in that she too needed the best help she could get to solve his murder, while Kaye was mostly just dreading the confrontation.

That aside, the middle of the NPA Headquarters at 8:00AM was neither the time nor the place to make a scene. This kid had done nothing except come in with a problem that the receptionist could actually take care of.

" _I think I may (be smarter than?) L!"_

"Smarter than L?" Kaye raised a dubious eyebrow at the kid. She had not paid much attention to the conversation he had been having, but that caught her attention. No longer concerned with convincing Misora to come back later she rounded on him. "Sorry, we are talking about the world's greatest detective, right?"

Light turned to them with a befuddled smile. "I don't know about 'smarter'," he said in…perfect English. "But I think I may have _outsmarted_ him."

The correction was subtle, merely a slight emphasis on the word 'outsmarted' that was so soft it was a miracle she did not miss it. Kaye's eyes flickered up to take in the way his bangs swept precisely over his forehead, and attempted to assess whether there was condescension in his gaze from the set of his eyebrows.

"Didn't mean to pry," she said. She affixed her sight slightly down around his left cheekbone. "My Japanese is a bit rusty. Still…you must be pretty smart if you think you've figured out something the world's greatest detective hasn't."

Light chuckled, tucking his hands into the pockets of his coat – tan, smooth and lint-free. "It's perfectly alright. My name is Light Yagami."

Naomi stepped forward so that she was shoulder-to-shoulder with Kaye. "Hello Mr. Yagami. I'm Shoko Maki, and this is my friend –"

" – Kaye Tyler. It's nice to meet you."

"And you as well." He gave them both a short, shallow bow. "I also didn't mean to pry but…you said you had new information for Special Investigations? It wouldn't have to do with the Kira Investigation, would it?"

Kaye's vision narrowed, her eyes once again flicking toward his brow line. Beside her Naomi startled, reflexively gripping the strap of her purse and gasping. "I'm sorry," his forehead does not look contrite. "My father is the head of Special Investigations you see."

Misora's grip on the shoulder strap of her purse tightened. She became sharp: straight-backed, assertive in a way that Kaye remembered but had yet to see.

Light's eyes flickered to Naomi. "His phone is off, at the moment," he said to her rather than Kaye. "If you want, I can try reaching him again in a few minutes?"

It was at that point that the receptionist appeared to catch on to what was happening. " _Light_!" He leaned forward over the lip of his desk. " _Are you sure that this is a good idea?_ "

Light barely paid him any mind. He took a step forward, closer to Misora, and switched back to Japanese. " _No, no there's something about her. She seems trustworthy._ "

Kaye was hyper-aware of the fact that Light Yagami pointedly was not addressing her. He and Misora locked eyes for a few moments wherein the receptionist gave up talking to any of them, and Misora apparently made up her mind about something.

Naomi was the one to break Light's gaze by bowing at her waist. " _Thank-you so much_." Turning around to face Kaye she confided, "I say this is our best shot."

Privately, Kaye disagreed. Outwardly, she shrugged and let the two of them lead her outside.

-:-

"There's not too much around here, but I figure a walk around the block will give my dad enough time to get out of his meeting." Light looked over his shoulder with a closed-mouth smiled. He'd switched back to English, and Kaye winced, unsure whether to be more relieved that she would not have to try so hard to understand the conversation, or more on guard.

"That sounds fine," she replied, rather than making a definitive decision. "Out of curiosity though…" she paused. "Why did you decide to help us?"

Light slowed to a stop beside a low-seated stone bench, and a few hastily-planted topiaries. "Honestly, it was just a feeling." He considered them both for a minute before placing more of his attention on Misora once more. "You heard about what happened right? With the FBI agents?"

The most Kaye had heard about the FBI agents was that they'd existed, and Raye Penber had been one, and that Raye Penber had died. It did not take a genius to figure out that if he was dead the rest of them likely were too, but while the news media had speculated about it all evening there had yet to be any official statement made by either America or the FBI itself. All things considered, she probably had not questioned Misora enough about what had led her to the conclusion that Raye had been murdered by Kira directly, but she knew how Misora worked.

If Naomi Misora believed Raye Penber had been killed by Kira, then she had a damned good reason for it.

Misora was staring at Light Yagami with the same steely resolution Kaye had noticed earlier. "Yes." She strode a step closer to him. "I heard about what happened."

"I thought as much." The grimace Light gave was slight – just enough that his brow furrowed and his lips pursed. "Well, I'm sure my dad will be checking his messages soon; I called him a few times on the way over, so he should call back once he notices."

Kaye hummed. "Why not just give us his number?"

Light's attention shifted back to her quickly enough that she couldn't avoid making eye contact. "I'm sorry," he began, tucking his hands into his pockets "but I don't feel comfortable just giving out my father's information like that. Especially to strangers."

"We understand," Misora said hurriedly just when Kaye realized how tactless a question that had been.

"Yeah," Kaye agreed, easily. She felt her cheeks flush and her hands twitched with the need to fiddle with something – anything to be able to break eye-contact. "No, that's completely understandable; sorry."

In the few seconds they held eye-contact, Light appeared to make a determination. With a soft chuckle he lowered himself onto one of the benches they had stalled by. "It's alright; I get that waiting sometimes feels like you're doing nothing."

Kaye breathed deeply through her nose a few times, forcing herself to relax. This kid was helpful, polished, thoughtful, maybe slightly arrogant, but he had done nothing to provide her with any reason to be nervous. Even his failure to address her could be written off in a number of ways; Kaye was well-aware that she appeared stand offish at the best of times, and Misora had seemed more welcoming earlier in their interaction.

 _Really_ , she told herself, _there's no need to get worked up about a small social faux pas._ She would just have to avoid making too much small talk while they waited for Light's dad to return his calls.

"So, you two have been investigating Kira by yourselves? That's pretty brave."

"It's not really an investigation," Naomi was saying.

In response, Light tilted his head to the side. "Really? Then how did you get any new information on the case?"

Her companion shrugged, proceeding to take the seat next to the young man. "My fiancé," she confided. "He was one of the FBI agents that was killed. It couldn't have been anyone other than Kira…" at this point Misora hesitated, looking between her and Yagami for some sign to continue. She must have received it because she proceeded to talk. "He told me that his identity had been compromised, and then he died."

"I'm…sorry for your loss."

Misora took a slow breath. "I haven't had time to get used to it," she admitted. "But I have to focus on getting this information to L personally before I let it get to me."

"What could you have possibly figured out on that alone?" Though Light looked just the right amount impressed, his choice of words was properly derisive.

"Mostly, I figured out things about how Kira kills."

Where Kaye had been uninterested in joining the discussion, this made her sit up and take notice. That was…significant. Definitely, a significant thing that she really wished Misora had disclosed with her before she had trekked all the way to NPA headquarters. Now, she felt out of step with Misora, like they were two units of a marching band and she had led with her left foot instead of her right.

"Really?" Light was saying, even more impressed than before, but there was a harder note to his voice that Kaye could not place. For some reason his eyes were narrowed as he glanced between the two of them. "Now I'm curious; what did you find?"

Kaye waved a hand at Misora, inviting Light's attention back to the other woman for her to elaborate. Despite her reservations about revealing this information to a stranger, she was more interested in hearing it herself.

"There was…" Misora hesitated. "There was a bus jacking. Raye didn't mention much but…I looked into the incident a little bit, and…I think Kira can kill in other ways; it doesn't have to be a heart attack."

The wind rustling the leaves of the topiaries immediately closest to them was almost louder than the traffic. Neither Kaye nor Light said a thing, and she used the break in conversation to take a quick look at their surroundings. It was late enough in the morning that more people were out and about, but of those people there were none who paid them much mind – too focused on traversing the gray sidewalks to their own jobs to notice how still their trio had gone.

When the silence was finally broken it was by Light, who had switched back to Japanese. _"That's…that's certainly –"_

"Something right?" Kaye interrupted. His attention snapped to her, but Kaye was looking at Naomi. "You see why we need to speak to the Task Force as soon as possible."

"Yes…" Light stood up. "I'm sorry," he said taking out a slip of paper. "I'm afraid I haven't been entirely honest with you."

Instinctively Kaye took a step back on her guard. What did Light Yagami have to lie to them about? Though she was still seated, Kaye could see that Misora was likewise alarmed.

"You'll never be able to talk to someone from the Task Force; the police simply won't allow it." Light continued.

"Why not?" Kaye questioned.

"Let me explain. The…the Task Force has been organized so that its members can't be identified and nobody on the outside knows who's in charge. If the members' names were ever made public, or the structure of the task force was revealed, we'd likely see another tragedy along the lines of the one that claimed your fiancé's life."

 _Believable_ , Kaye thought.

Naomi was nodding tentatively. "You seem to know a lot about this."

"Yes," Light agreed. He tucked his hands deep into his pockets and appeared to think for a few moments before finally saying: "It's because I'm actually a member of the Task Force."

 _Wait_. "Come again?"

"Yes," he continued, and…began to pick up steam. "I know it's hard to believe, but so many detectives quit because they were afraid for their lives; L was concerned the Task Force was getting…too small, and I've helped the NPA with cases so much in the past that he decided to bring me on board."

That gave Kaye pause.

It wasn't like it was unheard of necessarily. In fact, the case they had recruited Naomi Misora on had been one such time where L had felt like an outside aide would be beneficial. But…Misora had not been a civilian. She had been suspended, but she was still an FBI trained agent. Most of their "civilian consultants" had not been actual civilians; students actively in-training for detective/police-type work maybe, and occasionally criminal consultants, but…never a normal high-school student, genius or not.

Naomi suddenly looked hopeful. "So, L trusts you then?"

Light nodded. "I'm allowed to investigate freely as I see fit, and can come and go from headquarters whenever I need to," he shrugged. "The Task Force was handpicked by L, and they are all extremely skilled, and well-respected. I can recommend you join if you would like?"

Kaye's blood chilled to match the temperature outside. That was wrong; Light Yagami was lying. _Why would he need to do that?_

"I am very sorry, but Shoko and I are not interested in joining the Task Force personally _."_ Her mind was dusting the cobwebs off of gears that it had not turned in a long time. There was something about Light Yagami that did not make much sense to her, and the fact that she could not put her finger on what was making alarm bells go off in her head. _"_ We only want to say what we know, and now we did. If you could, please, give the information to L, but," and here she remembered to look at her watch, "Shoko and I are already late for a meeting."

Misora was very obviously not on board with what Kaye was proposing, but Kaye was tugging persistently on her jacket sleeve. Though she felt Misora resist the pulls she did allow Kaye to yank her down the street, and around the corner to a park.

Kaye curled herself into a fetal position on a park bench, resting her chin on top of her knees. After growing up in the countryside she had never been able to get used to the way skyscrapers loomed over everything that existed at street-level. At the moment, in the middle of Tokyo, and with Naomi Misora refusing to take a seat next to her, Kaye felt almost microscopic.

"Why would you do that?" Misora exclaimed. "He was our best bet at getting to join the task force directly."

Kaye groaned inwardly. " _Think_ for a second, Miss. Misora, please!"

She whirled on her. "Explain." She demanded, arms crossed.

Kaye sighed, and worried her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment before she began. "You mentioned that Raye came here as an FBI agent to investigate for L."

It was not a question but Misora answered anyway. "Yes."

"So, obviously your fiancé was assisting L on the Kira Case."

"Yes." Misora was gritting her teeth. "You know that."

Kaye sighed. " _So_ , he already has the NPA working with him. Why couldn't they investigate? That would be the whole point of coming to Japan in the first place. Why would he need to ask for help from a foreign police force if he already had the NPA's cooperation?"

Misora's entire body relaxed in epiphany – her arms dropped, and her eyes widened. "Because…because he can't trust the NPA. There…that must mean there's a leak somewhere…and it must come from fairly high up…otherwise L wouldn't bother with a foreign police force." Her words came out slowly, and in increments as she caught up to what Kaye was insinuating. She then took it a step further. "And if Yagami's father was the Chief Superintendent…"

Kaye nodded along with Misora's deductions. "Then he was likely being investigated by the FBI. Which means that we can't go through the NPA to get to L. I'll bet he – that is L – won't trust that we are who we are if we come through the police."

Her companion seemed to mull this over for a moment. "That doesn't mean that Light Yagami was the one being investigated, just his father. If Light really is a part of the Task Force that was our best chance at getting there – especially if you two aren't talking!"

The sigh that fell from her lips was chest-deep and heavy. "I realize that asking you to trust me is a lot right now," she said, "but that's never how we chose civilian consultants. And they would never have the authority to suggest anyone for the investigative force."

Misora groaned and dropped all her weight onto the other end of the bench in one go. "Now what do we do?"

"Well, don't worry," Kaye said. "I've got good news and bad news."

"Oh?"

"The good news is that I'm pretty sure I can find L without having to go through the NPA."

Misora kicked her right knee onto the space between them so that she could face Kaye completely. "And the bad news?" she asked. "It has something to do with why he didn't want you to work on the Kira Case doesn't it?"

Kaye made a non-committal noise in her throat. "Yes and no…" she hedged. Her left hand tapped an offbeat rhythm on the hem of her jeans. Kaye hyper-focused on the muffled tap of the denim that her fingertips made as she attempted to gather her thoughts. "I'm pretty sure I can find him without the NPA," she said again, but continued this time, "but, I'm not all the way sure. Because…"

Misora waited patiently through another long pause. "Because?"

Kaye shrank in on herself, stopping the finger taps in favor of wrapping her knees closer. "Because he probably has safe-guards to make sure that I don't get anywhere near him."

There was no way that Misora did not pick out the hurt in her voice. The amount of the emotion surprised even her. Kaye could not find it in her to look Misora in the eye as she continued. "He left, four years ago," her words became more dejected the longer she went on; it was much different saying the events out loud than it was admitting to herself that they'd had an effect on her. "There was one more case in LA after B's. Since we were already there we decided to investigate in-person…"

"What happened?" The other woman spoke softly, urging Kaye to continue.

"There was a fire," Kaye whispered. "We got separated. I was trapped inside the building when it collapsed, and when I woke up in the hospital they had me down as a Jane Doe. I realized that no one had come for me. I don't even think they looked."

"Did they have cause to?" Misora was obviously trying to put the question to her as delicately as possible. "I'm sure they must have tried if there wasn't."

Kaye scoffed. "Of course, there wasn't. But I didn't make it difficult to find me." She turned a wry smile onto the former FBI agent. "You're going to have to trust me on this one, but we have… _had_ identities in place. Alias's we could use to find one another in case we got separated." She gestured toward herself. "Kaye Tyler is one of my…less used one's, but they still would have… _should_ have known. As soon as I started putting down roots as Kaye Tyler they should have bloody known."

"…But no one ever came."

A bitter laugh. "Hah! Nope, not once in four years. Haven't heard a fucking thing." At this point Kaye was not startled to find that she was trying to swallow back bitter tears. "Anyway," she said, changing the subject, "if I can't manage to find him this way….well, you know why."

Misora said nothing.

The two of them sat on the park bench in an oppressive silence that slowly turned companionable the longer they sat there. Kaye had to remind herself that she was not the only one who had been harmed by the beginning of the Kira Case. She tilted her head up to consider the grey sky. It wasn't just her dirty laundry that was being dragged up, it had also ruined Ms. Misora's chance at a happy family.

Carefully she reached out and placed a hand on Misora's knee, squeezing gently. The only acknowledgement the action received was Misora tilting her head upward to consider the same sky.

Kaye said nothing either.

-:-

Five-hundred feet away, and twelve stories up, a third pair of eyes considered the sky as well. Behind him papers rustled as they were passed back and forth between a group made of five NPA officers; they were far chattier than he had been expecting, but that might have been because they were excited to have some new information, because maybe _this_ information might be what prevents any more deaths.

Not for the first time L felt the shadow of another death loom over him.


	7. Intermission

_A/N: Omg thank-you so much to everyone who reviewed the last few chapters! I'm so stoked that people are actually interested in this story; you can't imagine how happy it makes me!  
Now specifically to the guests who reviewed chapters six: Neither of you provided usernames so I'm going to respond to both of you at the same time here. I'm so glad you both liked the last chapter, and especially that you both enjoy Kaye. As for the remark regarding descriptions, much of the next arc is heavily focused on dialogue and character interaction so I'm not going to provide much external scene description within those moments - Kaye's perspective is limited for a reason. Now Kaye and L aren't going to be meeting up for a few chapters yet, but don't worry it is coming, and I've been planning it for a few years so don't worry I definitely have something in mind.  
Thank-you all so much again, I really enjoy responding to your responses so I encourage you to keep them coming. _

* * *

Chapter Five | Intermission

It was easily the nicest hotel that Naomi had ever been in.

The carpet was plush, full of rich colors with even more opulent looking furniture arranged on top of it. Most everything in sight was either a stark white or tinted with gold and red hues. Altogether the lobby evoked a more western feel than most western hotels, and what she wouldn't give to sink into one of those sinful-looking armchairs for maybe an hour or four.

Ignoring the urge to rest for even just five minutes, Naomi found one of the more uncomfortable looking places to settle down and proceeded to do just that.

"The key to not drawing attention is to look like you belong there," Kaye had said when Naomi asked why she had to be the one to sit in the hotel lobbies. Kaye had made a sweeping gesture that had encompassed the tip of her poufy bun to the battered scuff-marks of her sneakers. "I _so_ don't look like I belong here, and the less attention we draw the better."

Naomi thought that Kaye's heart was still a bit too hesitant about discovering L's whereabouts than her impatience agreed with. Unfortunately, she had to relent with grudging admittance, because, yes, through no fault of her own Kaye did stick out like a sore thumb in Japan.

And, she had to admit, the other woman was helping.

Since going to the police was out of the question, and contacting Light Yagami even more so, Kaye had insisted that if they were going to find L their best bet would be to hunt down Watari.

"He's an old man with a moustache," was Kaye's description.

Naomi struggled to keep up with Kaye power walking down the sidewalk in long, efficient strides. "There are a lot of old men with moustaches in Japan, Kaye."

"Yes, but we're looking for a specific one. He'll be completely grey, and wear these rectangle spectacles that may or may not have arms. He'll be in a suit with a briefcase, and a hat that looks like a fedora but might not actually be – I don't know much about hats. He looks like a grandfather." She stopped on the street corner outside of the first hotel they'd cased. "And he has this thing where he needs to press the button for the elevator four times before getting in it. It's a minor case of OCD…I think. I don't know what he thinks is going to happen if he doesn't do it but he'll pause for a few seconds between one press of the button and the next so…it'll be the most noticeable thing about him."

The hard-backed chair Naomi has settled in has a perfect view of the elevators and the front entryway of the hotel itself. From her purse she pulled out a thick paperback, and pretended to be engrossed by its pages; in reality, most of her attention was split between the elevators and looking out for any old man who had glasses.

-:-

When she returned to their hotel room she discovered that Kaye had gotten her hands on the largest dry-erase board that Naomi had ever seen. On it the other woman had painstakingly written out a chronicle of the entire year thus far, each day marked by which criminals had died and at what time they had kicked it.

Even Naomi had not known any of this particular information. She had known that criminals were dropping dead daily – it was all the news could talk about – however, the news was not able to release any additional information apart from the day's body count.

"Where did you get all this?" she questioned. She gestured to Kaye's timetable, impressed.

Kaye looked up from where she had drawn a large question mark beside a specific date. "I've been keeping track since Kira started killing." She hefted the board into her arms and leaned it up against the headboard of her bed. "The internet is an interesting place; you can find all kinds of things on it."

Naomi kicked off her shoes. The older woman stepped farther into the room and sat, cross-legged, across from Kaye's scribbling. And it really was scribbling. There were not very many places where the writing was even legible. Even though the board was relatively large there were so many names attached to each date that Kaye's handwriting was small, and cramped until there was more dry-erase marker than whiteboard.

Kaye wiped her wrist across her forehead. The tips of her fingers, along with the side of her fist, were faintly dyed to match the color of her marker, and her hair was tied back out of her face in an even scruffier bun that usual. Naomi could tell that she had been at this since she had left for the hotel that morning.

She didn't look at Naomi directly when she gestured to the board again. "I've been trying to find some kind of connection between the times of death of _all_ of the victims. Together. I haven't had much luck."

Naomi's attention was drawn to the giant question mark Kaye had been in the middle of adding when she had come in. "What's that for?" she asked, pointing to it.

Kaye groaned. "On January tenth, Kira tried to prove a point." She collapsed beside Naomi on the bed. "For some reason he decided to kill only twenty-four inmates once an hour. It's the only time he's been specific – and I mean _really specific_ – about his killing."

 _Except for Raye_ , Naomi thought, though she did not say anything out loud. Thinking about her fiancé's death caused her chest to begin aching. She had to actively tune out Kaye's voice as the other woman continued, so that she could put most of her focus into not crying.

She had to constantly remind herself that she was doing this for Raye. There was no time to mourn him because she had to focus on catching his killer, otherwise she would never be able to put him to rest properly, despite the fact that his body had already been shipped back to the U.S. at this point. Naomi did feel a bit guilty about sending him home alone, but she had a feeling that he would have understood if he'd been alive.

At least, she hoped he would have.

Ignoring her burning eyes Naomi took a closer look at the deaths preceding January tenth. While those particular criminals had not been killed on as neat a schedule as those on the tenth, it only took a few moments for Naomi to discern the pattern.

"That's a High School schedule…" she muttered.

"Pardon?"

"Before the tenth," she clarified. "Before the tenth Kira was only killing in clusters at certain times. Look." She pointed to the times Kaye had written. "A few before 8:30 in the morning, a few around 1:00 in the afternoon, and then the rest after 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. _Only on weekdays._ "

The marker Kaye had been fiddling with up until this point dropped from between her fingers. "Oh my fucking God," she whispered. "Kira's just a kid." She shook her head like she couldn't believe what it was she was seeing. "I always figured he was naïve – most serial killers are in some capacity y'know? They have these delusions of grandeur, or self-importance, but…I didn't think that was because he was an actual kid."

Anger burned raw and hot in Naomi's blood. Child or not, Kira had still committed deplorable acts, and murdered innocent people. If Kira was a high school student than that meant he must have been between fifteen to eighteen years old. In Naomi's eyes that was old enough to be held accountable for your own actions. She would still arrest Kira if it was the last thing she did.

"That does not change anything," she said out loud. Her voice shook as she tried to contain the outburst. She wanted to lash out at Kaye for even having the slightest bit of sympathy for this... "Kira is still a monster."

"Yeah…" But Kaye looked far from convinced. "I just don't think he's one by choice anymore."


	8. Monster

_A/N: Hey everyone, so I'm gonna leave a quick warning for this chapter, and I'm super serious about this guys. **This update contains allusions to child abuse, sex trafficking, and torture, so if any of that makes you uncomfortable please please skip this chapter.** It is a flashback, I say nothing too explicit, and this doesn't directly connect to much about the upcoming installments. That being said it is relevant to why Kaye is the way she is, but I promise I will go into that later - you can still skip this without missing that information, and as always you can hit up my inbox if you have any questions. I'm super hype that so many people are enjoying this, and I don't want to do anything to impede that enjoyment. That also said, we have officially hit the point where I have no chapters written in advance so even though I've got most of chapter seven done there might be longer gaps between uploads._

* * *

Chapter Six | In the Presence of a Monster

Eleven years later what Kaye would still remember the most was the smell. It had coated her nostrils and flavored her tongue of sour piss and sweat for days after she had been dragged away from the huddle of vomit-covered children. Repugnant, inescapable, and on her worst days she still had to take three showers to get the memory of the stench off of her.

At the time smell had mattered very little. What had offended her sensibilities up above had no business down there; who cared if Little Katie was coated in a layer of sewer muck and dried blood, so was everyone else, and if it meant one second of positive physical contact Kaye would have given her left arm for it. Anything for a hint of warmth, or softness. But for softness all she had was the steel kiss of manacles or the comfort of splinters in a wooden box, and for warmth she learned that the sting of an open palm on her cheekbone, always careful never to bruise, could be reassuring. Gushing blood was always more comforting in those days – it was human, a sign that she, at least, was still alive, and blood itself didn't hurt as much as flesh did.

Back then she had liked to imagine what sleeping in a pillow-fort had been like. Would imagine the many colorful pillows that she would get Jammer to stack strategically on the floor in the House living room. She would feel the phantoms of happy children curl into her sides. Happy children, who knew the pain of loss but never the agony of blood on the walls of a sewer. In those moments Kaye had almost been able to see it…but no…no she couldn't see anything. It was always too dark, dark, dark, and honestly she preferred it that way. She knew L was coming, _she knew L was coming_ , but if she did not crush that little flicker of hope that stuttered in time with the tears that gathered in her eyes when a flashlight would illuminate their squalor….by that point she had been disappointed too many times.

No, the sting of light meant _he_ had come.

He hadn't worn a suit back then, and his hair, while slicked back, did not reach his shoulders. What Kaye remembered most about him was not how he straightened his shoulders to appear more domineering; nor his eyes, that glittered with deceptive kindness; it wasn't even his straight nose and translucent pallor, both of which gave him the countenance of death come much too early.

He smiled when he taught her things. Flashed his teeth when she learned to keep her gaze lowered; chuckled when she was deferential first and rebellious second. He seemed to like leaving red marks on her skin; he knew it would take more force for her skin to color.

"Maybe you'll be lucky," he would whisper, far too close, breath far too wet, "maybe whoever buys you will only hit you a little."

The emptier she felt the more he smiled. The more he smiled the more he whispered to her. Under there she had felt very empty.

They hadn't taken her earrings. _She knew L was coming_. But it was dangerous to hope in front of a monster.


	9. Consequences

_A/N: I live! And so does this story! Thank-you so much for being patient with me and to everyone who have continued to show interest in this thing; I'm honestly beyond stoked that I've been getting consistent views even though I've been MIA for three months. This would have been out waaay sooner, but as I was writing it I realized that I'd accidentally written a gigantic plot hole in the middle of the chapter and had to go back over and completely rework it. I still haven't managed to write any further ahead so we're still in slow update territory, sorry guys but I swear to you all that I have no intention of ever letting this fic go incomplete.  
_ _As always I love you all, and I also love responding to your feedback (even if I'm slow at it sometimes)!_

* * *

Chapter Seven | The Consequences of Arguing

"Do you _really_ want to find L?"

Kaye attempted to crack her eyes open against the morning sunlight that was slipping into the room. Still, she protested when the rays of light stabbed her retinas and made to pull the blanket over her head.

Misora took the other end and gave a sharp tug, yanking the blanket from Kaye's fingers. She heard the other woman let it fall to the floor with a soft swish and settle safely out of Kaye's reach. Kaye cracked an eye at Misora, who was difficult to look at – the light from the window created an inverted silhouette that left her bright and glowing around the edges.

"What?" she croaked as it became clear that Misora was not going to repeat her question. She scratched sleep from her eyes with a fist.

"Do you really want to find L?" Misora stood at akimbo, though Kaye felt that her stern posture was offset by her cotton pajamas. "It's just, I've been going in and out of hotels for a while now and we haven't seen anything. We should have tried something new by now."

There was no way that she had been up long enough to have this discussion. All things considered Misora was not _technically_ wrong. It was probably long past time they attempted a different approach, or, at least, considered going through the police again. The absolute worst thing that could happen at that point was Kaye getting deported, or maybe they'd get placed in a holding cell for a few days. They had yet to do anything illegal, but…

"I get that you have some… _issues_ with him, but this is a bit bigger than bygones."

Kaye levered herself up onto one elbow. "Understatement," she said, "but yes I _do_ actually understand the bigger picture." She wiped her free hand across her face, rubbing her nose in a way that, while one of the most unattractive habits she'd ever developed, opened up her sinuses and brought her nearer to waking up. Sitting up all the way, she opened her arms in invitation. "So, let's talk."

"You don't actually want to find L."

No, she didn't. "I don't actually think we need to." They did need to…eventually, but if she could put it off for as long as possible… Well, despite the inevitability of the confrontation, the longer it took to get there the more comfortable she was.

That gave Misora pause. "You…think we can catch Kira by ourselves?"

Kaye breathed once: deep, harsh, and short. "Well, maybe not _catch_ him," she replied. "But I think…I think we can figure out who he is."

Misora stared at her, mouth slightly agape. "You think...that we have enough information…to _find_ Kira?"

"Yes."

Her companion paused. She raised a finger to tap the seam of her lips, and shifted her weight so that she leaned further away from Kaye's bed. One tap, two, three...

"We've got to go to the police," Misora concluded.

Kaye's response was immediate. "I can't go to the police."

"Ugh," Misora crossed her arms. "Fine. Why can't you go to the police?"

Kaye attempted to placate the other woman by holding up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "At the risk of sounding redundant," she said, "because I doubt there's any possibility of them talking to me."

"Because you believe that L will make sure that you can't approach him." Misora continued, "I know. But that doesn't mean that _I_ can't go."

Kaye avoided looking Misora in the eye. Technically that was true, and in all likelihood, was probably the better option…however…

"I don't want us splitting up," she said. "I don't think it's a good idea."

Misora growled, the corner of her lip lifting in a snarl that Kaye was surprised to be on the receiving end of. Up until this conversation Naomi Misora had been mostly mild-mannered and perceptive, having supplied most of the information behind their own investigation. The only other time Misora had been so agitated had been years ago, when they first met, and the two situations were surprisingly comparable.

" _And_ ," she pressed on, "it's not just that I don't think they will talk to me."

Misora raised her eyebrow.

"In the past…communities that are _particularly_ close-knit don't take well to outsiders coming in and-and assuming that they know more." Kaye fixated on Misora's eyebrow, still skeptically curved high on her pale forehead, half of it disappeared into the curtain of her hair. "I don't like to make judgements, and I'm not in any way suggesting that this is normally how the situation would be handled, but I think it's safe to say that Kira has everybody on edge to say the least. I don't know about you Misora, but if I were the Japanese police and a foreign woman just waltzed in claiming that she knew something they didn't about the Kira Investigation…well, I'd want to believe she's Kira far more than I'd want to believe a high schooler from Japan is."

The eyebrow lowered, and with it some of the tension from Misora's shoulders, though her posture was still incredibly defensive. No matter how for going to the police she was, Kaye could tell that she saw the validity of Kaye's reasoning, and wasn't that something? All this time Kaye had assumed she had said that, but it began to dawn her that somewhere along the way there was a gap in communication.

Misora breathed in through her mouth, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "As logical as that sounds, I doubt that L will let either of us stay in a prison cell for longer than a few hours."

"No." She does not shout it; she doesn't even say it with any particular finality, but the protestation immediately sprang to her lips and out of her mouth so suddenly that she hadn't realized the objection had landed.

And the room's other occupant was back on the offensive. "We don't have the resources to do this by ourselves!" Misora yelled. Her shins were pressed up to the side of the bed, and she flung her arms outward in a burst of frustrated motion. There was a flush high up on her cheekbones. "If he were an average, run-of-the-mill serial killer with a grandiose sense of self it might be different. But this is _Kira,_ Kaye; you have to know it is not as simple as that."

She stepped back from the bed, and Kaye relaxed her grip on the sheets enough to kick them away; she was beginning to feel overly confined. But Naomi _growled_ , and was suddenly a frantic blur of motion, hands flinging themselves back upward to grasp fistfuls of the hair at her temples. "I'm trying to be patient; really I am, but I'm just so _tired._ Kira _killed my fiancé_ ; I want him _gone_." Naomi was almost hyperventilating – breathing heavily until something in her decided to lash out, snapping, and led her to kick the bed _hard_.

Kaye flinched back against the headboard, the sheets tangled around her calves. "I don't trust L!"

For the first time, she could not look Naomi Misora in the eyes.

Objectively, there was plenty of noise to be heard. The curtains whooshed in the gentle wind of the radiator, itself creaking against the wall. Tokyo traffic roared just outside the hotel window, and the occupants of the room just above theirs were having just as enthusiastic a disagreement as she and Misora. Yet, there was a eerie absence of motion, and…their room was silent.

Kaye stared so hard at the goose-grey wall that her vision began to fuzz around the edges. Her voice, when she finally began to speak, was not quiet, but it was harsh, rough, almost as though she had not used it for a while. "It's not that I don't think he can't solve the case," she breathed. "Of course, he can do that. But if there is any way it can benefit him, he will leave us there. Don't you remember what he did to B?"

Misora was contemplative. "He did that?"

Kaye shrugged. "Well, _we_ did that," she admitted without looking at Misora. "I'm not saying that I didn't have a hand in it, or that...well, that it wasn't B's fault either. He killed people...and at that point it was either we stop him or he keep killing. We weren't prepared for each murder of course, otherwise we would have caught him much sooner...but we knew about the fire. We knew he planned to do that."

Naomi, it appeared, had nothing to say to that. They both lapsed back into silence. The radiator turned off and allowed the curtains to settle lightly against the windowpanes. The sound of the couple upstairs grew louder, but mostly they blended in with the throbbing sound of blood in Kaye's ears.

When Kaye finally looked away from the spot in the wall, Naomi Misora was gone.

-:-

When Naomi left the hotel room she decided not to slam the door behind her - as satisfying as it may have been to do otherwise. It was a habit left over from when she and Raye had lived in a matchbox studio apartment with tissue-thin walls. It had been almost impossible to breathe in the living room without the neighbors on either side eavesdropping; slammed doors and screamed exchanges were impolite. That said, she had never been particularly prone to tantrums to begin with. As a child throwing thing things, screaming, and hitting were never considered appropriate ways to gain attention, and as she grew older she found that venting her anger like that could never be a long-term solution.

The first time she had slipped onto the back of a motorcycle she was twenty and had not even been living in America for a month. Quantico was bleak (Japan had never been colorful in the wintertime, but Tokyo, at least, could say that it's digital billboards lit up the season better than the beer can Christmas tree she saw framed in the window of the apartment downstairs). Her only friend at the time had been her roommate, a lesbian whose girlfriend Naomi accidentally met first. Both had matching leather jackets, and sleek little bikes behind her roommate; she had to get almost uncomfortably snug against her back before she wasn't worried about falling off. The smell of leather, pipe exhaust, and grease blew away in the quick wind, and Naomi felt the tight ball of anger she harbored at Raye extinguished with the whip of her roommate's hair against the side of her neck.

Going fast was much preferable to staying stationary, and it was far easier for her to let her concerns evaporate in the wake of her bike.

But, unfortunately, she didn't have her bike; this trip was never supposed to take this long to begin with. So, she bypassed the elevator and took herself down the stairs three at a time - landing precisely, if a bit shaky, on the edge of every one.

She burst through the front entryway to their hotel. Even though it was still fairly early in the morning, there were plenty of people milling about the street in front of the hotel; maybe not as many were it later on in the day, but enough that Naomi had to come to a sudden halt, so she did not run into anyone. The moment she came to a stop, the conversation with Kaye rattled around her skull like loose marbles clicking together on the sidewalk beneath her, and it became clear that if she could not have her bike she would need to find another way of getting rid of the thoughts in her head.

Naomi scanned the surrounding sea of buildings. Across the street, directly ahead, there was a small tech shop nestled between a cat café and a loud-looking touristy venue. Ten minutes later she was walking out of the shop with an mp3 player and set of earbuds in hand; if her bike was unavailable, a run would do nicely.

-:-

Kaye wandered down the road with the bus route Misora had scrawled on the back of a crumpled receipt days earlier. Retracing the steps of a route Kira had most certainly been on was not, perhaps, a smart thing to be doing, particularly alone, but Kaye never claimed to be a genius.

She just wanted to find… _something_ \- wanted the illusion of being busy, of making progress. And there was nothing back at the hotel to keep her occupied – not even colored walls. Restlessness buzzed under her skin like static, spurred on by the argument she had with Misora this morning, and made her head fuzzy. It was enough that she found herself paying less and less attention to her surroundings the farther she went along the route. It was turning more into a mindless, zombie-type wandering masquerading as productivity with every passing second.

The residential district just outside of the particular part of Tokyo Kaye was staying in, was not one Kaye had had the pleasure of visiting. They were not terribly different from the suburbs of any other big city that she had been to, but there was something nice about this street. There was nothing in particular that marked it as such. There were walls around front garden plots big enough to store plastic tricycles, and trees with little fences around them. It had a sidewalk that was well-paved, and there were places in the asphalt of the road itself that suggested someone had come in recently and patched a few pot holes.

Before Kaye had left the hotel, she'd noticed that Misora had scrawled the name of the neighborhood around one of the squiggly intersection lines. Some part of her acknowledged that it was only logical the _Space World_ bus would pass by a few residential neighborhoods –fairly major theme park, plus neighborhoods, equals both patronage and a goodly amount of revenue – yet, at the same time, this had been the only real patch of Japanese "suburbia" she had encountered, and it was steadily approaching midday. Not to mention that Misora's freehand bus route was running out faster than an untapped drain.

Kaye paused in the middle of the pavement, squinting severely at the crumpled napkin she held. She cast a wary eye over the perfectly aligned buildings as though the neighborhood, like the napkin-map, would divulge answers if she squinted at them

 _That's suspicious_ , she figured distantly. The thought was detached. Kaye hadn't expected to think it at all, yet upon closer scrutiny there was, indeed, something suspicious in that this was the only residential area the bus passed through.

. She slowly teased the rest of the thought forward. _If this is the only neighborhood…then Kira could actually live here…_

Not worth it. Kaye spun around on her heel before she reached the end of the road, suddenly enamored with the hotel room once more. Better to let this line of inquiry be for now then wind up dead because she wandered right into Kira's backyard without a plan.

-:-

It happened when Naomi was jogging a block past To-Oh University. For a little over an hour she had been keeping up a fairly steady pace, and after one too many near-collisions with the steady stream of students making their way back into wild Tokyo from the university, she figured it was safer to keep closer to the curb.

The sun had continued to meander slowly across the sky the longer she was out, and though it had been as frigid a winter as any, for some reason today was fast becoming unbearably hot. She reached up to wipe the sweat from her eyes, and in doing so failed to notice the harried student slinging a backpack onto their shoulder.

Distantly, Naomi felt herself tip dramatically to one side before pitching forward just as harshly. She flung her left arm out for balance despite knowing that there was no possible way to regain her equilibrium in time to save her and, knowingly, she made her descent to the ground…just in time for her to miss the car coming around the corner that had been her destination.

It was funny in a way that wasn't really funny at all. The music blasting in her ears was a generic pop track with a nice beat that kept time remarkably well with her pounding heart, but over-all really failed to mesh well with the sight of an oncoming car. Sleek, black, and western the hood had been shined to such perfection that Naomi could see her wide-eyed reflection - startled, yet for some reason not overtly surprised. There was a moment, a quarter of a second at most, where her brain decided that stopping herself from hitting the car was much more important that cushioning the impact of the fall and she tried to switch the direction of her hand only to have it crunch sickeningly under the front wheel as the oncoming car screeched to a halt in front of her nose. Before the rest of her body could make it, her head bounced off the hot asphalt of the road.

And that was the end of that.

-:-

Kaye was halfway to the room when her mobile rang with an unfamiliar number. She nearly passed out as the shrill tone interrupted the relative quiet of the hallway. There was no reason for an unknown number to be calling her, no reason at all, and Kaye's heartbeat picked up as she stared at the digits.

She reasoned that it could be a telemarketer, or some poor schmuck with the wrong number, but she highly doubted either would be able to reach her phone on a Tokyo area code. That must mean that whoever was calling was aware that they were attempting to reach _her_ , and there were only two people in Tokyo who could possibly need to reach her and be desperate enough to use an unknown number to do so. Without another moment of deliberation, she flipped her phone open.

"Hello?"

"Hello miss." The voice on the other end answered, pleasant, professional, but she hoped not one she was expected to recognize. "Have I reached Miss Kaye Tyler?"

Kaye was startled into nodding. "Um, yes ma'am, yes uh. May I ask who is calling?"

"Miss Tyler," the voice began, "I do not wish to alarm you, but I am calling on behalf of a Miss Naomi Misora. She was brought into the _To-Oh University Medical Center_ about four hours ago, and specifically asked that you be notified of her condition."

Kaye felt like she was about to have a fucking heart attack.

-:-

When Naomi Misora woke up she realized a few things.

She did not realize them one at a time, rather once she became conscious enough to perceive anything through the haze of anesthesia she took in her surrounds all together, but with no detail nor real awareness to speak of.

The first thing she paid attention to was that there was a nurse speaking calmly in Japanese. The second thing was that the nurse was speaking to her. _"…should make a full recovery with physical therapy."_ The nurse adjusted the tube of her IV. _"Now there's a man who is here to see how you're doing if think you're up for visitors."_ Naomi barley managed to blink sluggishly at her but must have nodded or something as well because the nurse smiled. _"I'll send him in. Now, if you need anything you hit this button."_ She wiggled a call button that had miraculously materialized under Naomi's fingertips.

Naomi's eyes followed the nurse's departure, blinking intermittently. It was fascinating, honestly; each blink cleared some of the fogginess of the anesthesia, and she became quite invested in the process, especially when it allowed her enough awareness to realize that she was suffering the side effects of anesthesia.

The man appeared between blinks, and he was the fourth or fifth thing Naomi paid attention to.

He was an old man with a moustache. Completely grey, with rectangular wire rimmed spectacles that did, in fact, have arms. His suit jacket looked as though it had outgrown his shoulders, but was pressed clean, and in his hands he held both a briefcase and a fedora.

 _"Good evening miss,_ " Watari said. _"I came to see how you were faring. I likewise must apologize for your current circumstance, as it is my fault you are here."_

Naomi, confused, attempted to speak through her cotton-mouth. _"Pardon?_ " she croaked.

 _"I was the one who hit you with my car, Miss Misora."_


	10. Reunion

_A/N: Hi! Um, I've got no excuse really. Apart from this being a really difficult chapter to write? Well, it's here now, and tbh I'm still not completely sure about it. But thank you all for being patient with me! This is the big one, and we're officially officially in the middle of the story! I honestly cannot believe that you are all still interested and thank you so so SO much for all the support!_

* * *

Chapter Eight | Reunion

Kaye hauled-ass to the hospital.

Objectively, she realized that if Misora had been dead the person on the other end of the phone would have offered their condolences or something…probably. As they hadn't, Kaye was _mostly_ certain that Misora was still alive. But, well, she was still concerned – leg-bouncing, nervous concerned – because though she wasn't (necessarily) worried that Misora was going to die if she didn't get there as soon as possible...

If Kira didn't need a heart attack to kill then maybe this was step one of a multi-layered plan, and oh god how the hell did they get Misora's name, and did they somehow suss out hers? The entire way to the hospital was accompanied by a steady stream of _what if Kira this_ and _maybe Kira that_ 's playing in her mind. It didn't particularly matter that none of these thoughts were at all rational; her brain was content to run in paranoid, anxiety-driven circles as the taxi meter ticked up.

The taxi pulled up to the hospital fifteen minutes from the time Kaye had received the call, and Kaye grossly overpaid the cabbie in her mad-dash to get to the hospital front desk. There she was greeted by another receptionist with a well-done bun in her hair that clashed tragically with the bags under her eyes – which made her look about as frazzled as Kaye felt, while she gave Misora's name in Japanese that was more broken than usual.

" _Room 217 in the ER; if you're here to take her home she should be ready to check out soon."_ Kaye paused only long enough for the receptionist to point her in the right direction. As she half-walked half-jogged down the hallway, it didn't occur to her to say thank-you.

Unlike some, Kaye didn't have anything against hospitals really; she avoided them on principle, but she rather enjoyed the smell of antiseptic, and, regardless of their actual demeanor, Kaye had always been comforted by the presence of nurses. So, it really was indicative of how stressful today had been, because the hospital itself provided very little anxiety, yet Kaye's blood pressure had to be dangerously close to eruption.

Misora was sitting up in bed when Kaye arrived, her arm in a matte black sling, and a bright white bandage at her hairline. Kaye felt a bit of her tension ease. Bandage. A sling. That meant at worst all Misora had sustained was a broken limb, maybe a concussion – nothing life threatening now, and hopefully nothing life threatening later. The other woman was chatting with another exhausted hospital resident – a doctor this time, probably going over Misora's after patient care – but her eyes darted around the room, and her leg was bouncing against the side of the gurney.

Kaye didn't bother to announce her presence. Instead, she barely slowed down enough to avoid crashing into Misora's bad arm, gripped her by the shoulders, hard, and asked in English: "Since when have I been written as your emergency contact?"

The other woman blinks slowly, as though the haze of whatever pain medication they had given her hadn't entirely worn off yet, and _maybe_ Kaye should ease up on her, but on the other hand she was still a bit mad from this morning, and she had been worried, so fuck it really. She squeezed Misora's shoulders again. This time her question was answered.

"It…it was after we started working together…. I thought…since Kira…it might be easier. Just in case."

Kaye relinquished her grip on Misora's shoulders and stood back. The doctor, whom she'd ignored until now, shot her an irritated glance but shouldered Kaye aside to resume talking with his patient.

They didn't have to stay at the hospital much longer, a fact Kaye was particularly grateful for, because it meant that there was no reason for Naomi to be kept under observation. So, it was not too long before she was bundling the injured woman into the back of a cab and scrunching into the seat beside her.

Misora was quiet during the whole ride back to the hotel. Every once and a while her eyes and chin began to droop before she would jerk back up, as though she were struggling to stay awake in class.

After the third time, Kaye nudged her with the toe of her shoe. "You can doze off for a bit. I'll wake you up when we get to the hotel."

"Mm." Her response was in Japanese. " _No…can't sleep now, I've…got something to tell you. Important._ "

"Tell me at the hotel then."

-:-

Misora did not tell Kaye anything when they reached the hotel. Instead, Kaye slung Naomi's arm over her shoulder, half-dragged her up the three flights of stairs, and before they even made to their room had a sizable patch of drool on her shoulder. Unceremoniously, Kaye dropped Naomi onto the mattress where she bounced once…twice…and settled without showing any signs of stirring.

…something felt off.

Her own bed was still rumpled from their earlier altercation, and Naomi's house slippers were still haphazardly flung into the opposite corner from before she'd stormed out. Both suitcases were still open; the clothes within them looked as though they remained undisturbed, and the room was far too small to be hiding intruders.

Kaye stood back from Misora's bed, eyes still considering the details of her surroundings. Slowly, she inched her way around the mess of clothes, occasionally toeing a bra or pair of jeans with her shoe. She scanned the closest pile of clothes with a scrutiny she hadn't expected to give it this morning. Had she thrown a dirty pair of underwear on top of her undershirt or the other way around?

It was luck that she noticed. It was luck that made the late afternoon sun come through the window at just the right angle. It was luck that made her fixate on the bedside table while she was halfway between both beds and could see the wall behind the lamp. It was luck that she hadn't flicked the lights on inside.

The sun revealed a small divot in the wall where a small microphone had been embedded.

There were two possibilities.

The first: Kira.

Kaye grew up around geniuses and prodigies and specialists, and she had never claimed to be anything like them. There was no telling why she hadn't made the connection before now, but it seemed plain as day now that she'd actually thought about it. Why wouldn't Kira be on to them really? If he killed Naomi's husband, then he must know about Naomi, and if he knows about Naomi at this point then he probably knows about her. Solid reasoning. A few leaps of logic, but L would probably say that it was 10% plausible.

The lower the percentage the higher the likelihood.

The second: the NPA?

Or whatever task force had been assembled for Kira, L involved or otherwise. Spouses and significant others were always the high on the suspect list, and again Naomi's had been killed. It was not out of the realm of possibility that they could be watching them on the off-chance that Naomi might be their killer.

She wasn't going to take that chance.

"Alright Naomi Misora," she murmurs to her sleeping compatriot. "You win."

She leaves a note tucked under Misora's sleeping palm, slings a purse over her shoulder, and marches determinedly out the door.

-:-

Kaye marched up the front steps of NPA headquarters in the purple pajama shirt she'd been wearing all day, a dirty pair of jeans, and a pair of flats that had certainly seen better days. Having a definitive decision was cathartic and had given her a burst of fear-driven determination that overpowered her anxiety. Even if definitively making the decision had been difficult.

Very difficult.

Regardless, though her hand had been tipped due to the surveillance, Misora was right in that she really had allowed their investigation to stagnate for way too long. Guess that was what happened when she was left in charge of a situation for too long.

She shook her head to clear it of anything other than the task at hand.

The man running the front desk was different from the one she and Misora had run into the last time they'd been there. He startled when Kaye approached. Kaye took that to mean she was looking just the right amount of deadly serious. Placing her hand on the counter between them, she leaned in, looked the receptionist in the eye, and said in her cleanest Japanese:

" _I need to speak to someone from the Kira Task Force_."

-:-

This time, they didn't make her wait long. She was ushered quickly past the main waiting area and through a few sets of reinforced doors, before finally being seated in an interrogation room of all places.

That reeked of an unchecked L protocol if anything ever did.

The officer who had escorted her to the room left with a brief word of being right back with a Task Force member. As soon as he left, Kaye picked up the flimsy chair she had been given to sit in and dragged it around the table so that when she finally sat down she was facing the two-way mirror.

If nothing else came of it, the popularity of crime television had certainly standardized interrogation rooms. Kaye crossed her arms, tipping back in the seat until only two legs remained on the floor. It certainly was not the most professional of behaviors, but at the moment she felt as though feigned irreverence was the only way she was going to be able to make it through the next few hours.

With little else to do for the foreseeable future, Kaye closed her eyes and began counting the seconds.

The door opened again exactly ten minutes from when she began counting. It squeaked on its hinges, and Kaye tensed as it slammed back into the frame. She opened her eyes.

The man before her was doing his best to hide just how haggard he was. It was clear that he had straightened his tie and smoothed his suit jacket down before he'd entered; it did nothing to get rid of the exhausted slump of his shoulders, or the wrinkles in his forehead, and he had missed the creases in his pant legs. He was breathing heavily, as though he had had to run here.

As usual, she skipped over his eyes during her assessment—an easy enough endeavor because of his hair. She appreciated the natural hair.

"Good afternoon ma'am," he said in English. "I was told that you needed to speak to someone on the Kira Task Force?"

"To begin with," she replied.

"Begin with?"

She shrugged. "The only thing I _really_ have to say to you, Mister?"

"— uh, Aihara." _Hesitation_.

"—Mister Aihara, is that I need to speak directly with L." Kaye kicked off of the floor and let the chair fall back onto all four legs. It touched down with a satisfying slam. "Preferably soon, please. I assume if you're really on the Task Force he'll have given you a number to contact him directly." She leaned forward. "And I would like you to use that number please, not the one that goes to Watari."

Mr. Aihara was silent. Kaye also said nothing further, letting the man process her words on his own. She was sure that he could hear her heartbeat picking up and echoing off the bare walls of the room. Without taking here eyes off of Aihara's left ear, she began to gently bounce her heel in order to expel some of her nervous energy.

Finally, he came further into the interrogation room, pulling the other chair out from the table and sitting down across from her. "I'm sorry ma'am," he began, his tone placating, 'but I'm going to need a bit more information."

Kaye leaned back again and dragged a hand down her face. Okay, there were a couple of ways this could go. She needed to convince him to let her talk to L somehow, preferably without giving away any of Misora's information—personal or related to the investigation. It was all too sensitive to leave in the hands of an NPA agent who couldn't even give his real name.

 _So,_ she wondered, _how to do this?_

Kaye was not calculating. She was not nefarious, manipulative, or cruel. Making decisions, or chess plays did not come easy to her, and they likely never would. Her plans to talk to L once she had arrived at the NPA were nothing like what anyone would call machinations—maybe that's why there had been no place for her in detective work—but she could be effective if she needed to be.

So, she decided to gamble.

"Look, I understand how odd this must seem, but I really need to speak with L directly. Just…honestly, if you've had a scrawny, bed-headed intern calling himself 'Ryuzaki' hovering around the investigation lately let him know K is looking for him."

-:-

"It is a cruel joke, Watari." L's hands clenched where they were perched on top of his knees. He had spent the past thirty seconds observing nothing but the pattern of denim, and forty-five seconds running through a list of people who would be horrendous enough to impersonate…

He came up short. That did not happen often.

Watari was silent, and L shifted focus from his knees to observe the stiff lines of his caretakers back. The old man would not disagree.

Watari broke the silence slowly. They were both reluctant to speak. "Nevertheless, she has been brought here." He turns around to face L, face more somber than he'd observed in years. "I would advise against presenting yourself."

L had already made up his mind about the matter, but he stared at Watari for several seconds as though contemplating the suggestion. Finally, he heaved a sigh and laboriously moved until he was standing upright. Again, and again until he was at the door. There was a churning in his gut—an almost nauseous feeling that strengthened the more he thought about what was on the other side of the hall.

"There is no point in sending anyone else."

It was not a long walk, and he did not perceive it as such. Fifteen paces to the next door and an extra two to walk inside the room.

He stopped.

His mind did not.

She turned toward him—a ghost in a wrinkled pajama shirt (had she been wearing that that night?)—and if this was a deception, it was a _very_ good one. His mind reeled, picking up the details, objective in its observation even if he was too stunned to analyze the data. Earth warm skin, curls that exploded in Fibonacci spirals about her face, the same height. Perhaps more freckles about the nose, but otherwise she appeared to be the vision of…

 _Impossible_.

So impossible he felt lightheaded.

She had begun speaking, and her _voice_. There was a raspy quality to it that he did not remember, that made it pitch lower, but her cadence dipped in all the right places, and lifted exactly where he subconsciously expected it too. Now that he was faced with…it was easier to recall the minutiae. To spot the differences between his memory and…now. It would be easier to accept this whole situation as a fiction if everything about her was the same as they were in the memories he had refused to look at. That, at least, could be explained away by some sort of hallucination. His mind finally deciding that it had had enough of the present.

But this… She was speaking about the Kira Case. About information that he already knew, and information that he would have found out soon. Information she never had the chance to learn because…. _Naomi Misora is supposed to be the one bringing this. Not_ …

"Why are you here?"

Crude. Tactless. And not quite what he'd meant either.

He'd meant _how_ are you here. Because she couldn't be, though every one of his senses was telling him that here she was. He was, admittedly, having trouble reconciling what he knew with what he was learning. _She's here; she can't be._

Her face pinched, and her bottom lip trembled. Apart from when she'd first glanced at him as he came through the door, she had not looked at him. He could tell she'd rather not look at him. He saw the scar that severed the corner of her left eyebrow.

"Fuck, okay I _know_ ," her new voice wavered, "but could you just try not to be an absolute… _wank stain_ for half a minute?"

And she finally looked.

Their eyes met, hers hard and glittering with anger, about what he was unable to fathom, because they were _her eyes_ , and they were undeniably, impossibly alive.

"You're dead K."

But she was not.

-:-

The anger drained from Kaye faster than it had arrived. Dead? Like…dead to him? Or…had he really thought she was dead?

Impossible. If he'd checked, if they'd checked then they should have found her. Surely. But.

"What do you mean dead?"

But L's shoulders were shaking with tension, his hands flexing deep in the pockets of his jeans, while his eyes flicked around as though he were trying to find some new data, something else to take in that wasn't her. She hadn't noticed before; she hadn't wanted to look at him when he walked in. Had been more focused on speaking past the lumps in her throat—get the whole business over a quickly as possible.

"You died. We were unable to find you after the fire. You died."

He looked like a soft breeze would tip him over. Like he had never seen a good meal, or a brush. He looked tired. She'd seen him exhausted before, especially on cases. This was more somehow.

Kaye stepped forward, and the implications of that kind of statement began to reveal themselves to her. The reason he was behaving so oddly now was that he was the closest anyone had ever come to seeing a ghost. He hadn't come…. There was no reason to keep looking….

Because she had died.

"Oh," she said, softly.

They looked at one another in silence. Kaye felt the weight of a shared past settling back over them both—a weighted silence slowing the next few steps she took to stand in front of him.

"Oh," he whispered.


	11. Acclimation

_A/N: Damn y'all this one just flew out of me. I swear I had none of it typed up in advance but as soon as I got passed the reunion I knew exactly what needed to happen next, which was super refreshing. A quick note on where we are: I have the whole fic timeline written out in a journal that I cross-referenced with the manga timeline. So, I know that all of this is happening around April of 2004, which means the To-Oh Acceptance ceremony has already happened and the tennis match is coming up_ _(next chapter in fact, but you didn't hear that from me)._ _I know that I haven't been too explicit with where we are since running into Light a few chapters ago, but I don't just want to spout exposition that you all already know because you've seen the series. So, I wanted to give you a heads up._

 _Tl;dr: probably don't get comfortable to quick updates like this? and the in-universe date is April 6, 2004._

* * *

Chapter Nine | Acclimation

After the initial shock, L was fairly quick to compose himself. Not that Kaye had expected anything different. His composure had always been the result of his discomfort with displaying his own emotions—he had them, frequently, but advertising them had never come easy. The past she had spent so long moving on from lay too close to the present for Kaye's comfort; she was being reminded of everything _too quickly_ , and as soon as she was sure he wasn't about to go into _clinical_ shock right in front of her, she'd attempted to replace the distance between them.

He reached out and gently kept her in place with a feather-light touch to her elbow.

She stopped.

"You've been investigating Kira with Naomi Misora." Of course, it wasn't a question; she'd bet the change in her pocket that he figured as much as soon as he realized… Well, that she was alive. "How long?"

"Since he killed the FBI agents," she replied. Neither one of them were speaking above a quiet murmur. "Apparently, her fiancé was one of them."

L nodded once. "Raye Penber, yes. But that was back in January. Is there a reason you waited so long to get in touch?"

Kaye bit her lip. Briefly, she tried to make eye-contact, but instead looked at the wall behind him. "A few."

Kaye thought that four years ago, it would have been impossible for the two of them to sit in an awkward silence. Most silences back then had been companionable, and importantly on purpose. If neither of them was speaking it had always been because they were both choosing not to. But it was clear that L did not know how to respond to her comment, and there was no way that she was prepared to elaborate.

Eventually, he let her elbow go, his hand trailing down the side of her forearm as he let it drop to his side, and tucked it back into his pocket. "What changed?"

"Right!" Kaye was eager to power through the awkward part of the conversation, and it was past time they move on to her reason for visiting. "Someone's tapped mine and Misora's hotel room. She's just been in hospital for a broken elbow, and I'm worried about leaving her there any longer than I have to, but I'm even more concerned that whoever tapped our room might be connected to Kira somehow," she took a deep breath. "I couldn't think of who else might be able to help us with something like this."

He studied her for a moment, then inexplicably the corner of his mouth began to rise. Kaye didn't think he even noticed it happening, as the rest of his face did not follow suit. It was a creepy sort of look, but familiar in its own way.

"I've missed something," she said. "You're giving me a look like I've missed something."

"You have. Watari was the one that bugged Miss Misora's room. He didn't know about you sharing it, of course, but both of us were aware that Miss Misora had had an…accident. We thought it would be the easiest way to keep updated on her condition; she agreed to work with us."

 _"When?_ "

"Earlier this afternoon."

Kaye rubbed her hands down her face. "So, earlier today. You ran into Naomi?"

"Mmm, quite literally."

Kaye's thought process had to do a bit of mental gymnastics at that point. If she was remembering his manner correctly, L was hinting around something—something he was reluctant to divulge, but not unwilling to…provided she could work out what he was implying. "You….'literally?' You aren't the reason she was in hospital, are you?"

"Not me," he said, "Watari. In any case, we are aware of the bugs, and of Miss Misora's desire to join the Kira Task Force."

Kaye began nodding. "Great. Fantastic. You know you can't just bug people's hotel rooms like that."

L shrugged. "I'm taking all the precautions I feel are necessary. Kira is a different kind of criminal; I did not want to risk Miss Misora once I knew she wanted to...play."

"You still can't bug people's hotel rooms like that," she insisted. "I _know_ you know you can't just do things like that. And even if it was part of wanting to 'play,'" she placed air quotes around the word, " _I_ never consented to be a part of it."

L turned sharply to face her. She hadn't noticed that they'd drifted away from one another during the conversation, but she was grateful for the extra space. His attention had always been intense, and she found that she was not as used to it as she once was. She kept accidentally making eye contact with him and looking away too quickly to be causal.

"Don't you?"

"Don't I what?"

"You are _more_ than welcome to occupy a position on the Task Force, K."

Her head tilted, uncomprehending. And she realized, quite suddenly, that she had not thought past this point seriously. There had never been a part of her that considered what it would be like if she _joined_ the Task Force. At best, she had probably hoped that she would be allowed to hang around, and even then, not without her having to strong-arm her way there. That had been fine by her. Because he wasn't supposed to want her there. He left. He _couldn't_ want her there.

"Naturally, Watari rented the whole floor—you can choose any room along the hall to stay in. We plan to extend the same offer to Miss Misora."

Kaye did little more than stare at him.

L stared back and blinked owlishly at her a few times. "Unless…" He trailed off. Started again. This time he actually asked a question. "If you'd rather continue to make your own accommodations?"

"You…you _want_ me around? For the investigation?"

She had not been prepared for that. Had not been prepared to be welcomed around at all, much less as a part of the actual investigation. Kaye had spent so much time psyching herself up and sealing away her underlying desire to make sure L was safe, so that when he finally rejected her presence again she could save herself some time and heartache.

And here he was, barely asking if she wanted to be a part of the Task Force. Assuming she would be, as though there were no other option.

It was perplexing.

"You were always around for the investigations," he said.

Then again, she hadn't been prepared to be dead either.

It was easier to ignore that than it was formulate a response. So, she ignored it. "Um," she stuttered, "I-I'll ask Naomi about it. I should probably go get her actually."

"Yes. I suppose you should. Please, come back tomorrow morning; we have…there is a lot for you both to catch up on."

Kaye had only ever seen L this tripped up on a few occasions, and most of those had been when they were teenagers. To his credit, he was hiding it admirably, far better than she was anyway. The atmosphere in the room teetered between being too formal for their history, and too overly-familiar for her comfort level; she wanted to escape the room as soon as possible just so she could remember what to do with her hands.

Then someone knocked at the door.

Kaye made a strangled sort of sound in her throat.

" _Is everything alright in there Ryuzaki?_ " Watari's voice was composed, but Kaye could discern a note of steely concern even through the door. Suddenly, she was six years old. At the bottom of the stairs with a twisted ankle, oh so worried about the vase she'd broken; Watari had stood over her that day and asked if she was okay in the same tone.

"You really are using that name?" she asked L, though the words kept catching in her throat and her eyes remained locked on the wood behind him.

L raised an eyebrow at her and called through the door. "Please come in, Watari."

This reunion was the one Kaye had not realized she'd needed. Watari opened the door casually, a question halfway asked before he stopped behind L in the open doorway. She watched a look of disbelief slacken his face, and the rest of his question trailed off.

"Mr. Wammy?" As soon as L had begun to take on higher profile cases, they had only referred to him as Watari. But before he had been L's handler for detective work, he'd been Mr. Wammy.

Watari's hand was no longer on the door handle, because he had come all the way into the room now—past L—to wrap her up in a bone-crushing squeeze. He smelled lightly of bakeries and old books and every memory she had of her childhood.

Kaye cried.

-:-

She was hollow when she finally left.

Not empty, and not exactly relieved either, just…hollow, like coming down from an adrenaline rush and being shaky and weightless afterword. She had gone through so much trouble being anxious and stubborn and over-thoughtful, and now the aftermath was devoid of the only feelings she'd had since December. Her mind needed a moment or two (or twelve) to acclimate.

Naomi was standing on the curb when Kaye made it back to their hotel. She looked far more lucid than when Kaye had left—she was awake for one thing.

"Should probably stay away from these," Kaye said as she approached. She balanced on the curb. The tease felt flat in the air, but she was sure that was just her perception of it. Nothing seemed real to her right then.

Naomi smiled at her and adjusted her sling. "Maybe," she allowed taking a pointed step away from the road. She held Kaye's note between her fingers. _Don't panic. Don't follow. Lots of insects in the room. Headed to our friend to ask about it._ "Did you tell you-know-who about the bugs?"

"Yeah," Kaye said. "Yeah, turns out it was him."

"…You okay?"

"I think so." She paused. "He and Watari want us to move to headquarters tomorrow morning." Kaye met Naomi's gaze. It was an admission, an apology for not listening to Naomi. That she was wrong for not going to the police again—not quite, but close. The other woman's eyes were kind, and she was smiling a forgiveness for what Kaye hadn't quite formatted yet.

"Both of us? So, he doesn't mind you being around after all?"

Kaye took a deep breath and blew it out steadily in an effort to anchor herself before answering. "Mm, wild misunderstanding all that, as it turns out. Haven't decided how to feel about it to be perfectly honest. Er. Never did get around to telling him about your Kira suspicions though, so, you still get to do that."

It was not the smoothest way to transition, but Naomi accepted it anyway. "Early start tomorrow then?" she asked, beginning the walk back to the hotel.

Kaye nodded. "Early start tomorrow."

-:-

It would not be remarkably easy for Kaye and L to fall back into a routine together. This was not something that became immediately apparent to Kaye.

It had occurred to her briefly once they'd arrived that morning. Naomi had received a call from Watari at five o'clock, and they had shown up promptly at five thirty, zombie-eyed. They helped themselves to some coffee, and Naomi had settled in to explain their side of the investigation to L while Kaye tided the counter.

"Light Yagami is your number one suspect?" Naomi questioned. "NPA Superintendent's son Light Yagami?"

L gave them both a curious glance. "The same. I imagine if you know of him he is on your list of suspects as well. Especially, considering the information you brought—that Kira doesn't need a heart attack to kill? —it places him under further suspicion."

Kaye drank deeply from her coffee mug, moving to join them in the sitting room. "We know Light Yagami because we ran into him at the NPA. He lied about being a member of the Task Force, but we haven't seen him since." She considered this for a moment, leaning a hip against the back of Naomi's chair. "Unless, you _did_ make him part of the Task Force for some reason?"

L drew his knees up in his seat. "It is something I've considered. The best way to draw Kira out is to engage directly, and on the off chance that he _isn't_ Kira, Light would be a real asset to the investigative force."

"I don't like that," she said.

"Neither does Watari."

"It begs the question though," Naomi interrupted, "why did he lie? If he _were_ Kira it would make a lot of sense—we did think he, Kira, was a high school student, _and_ his connection with the Chief Superintendent would give him potential access to less commercial criminals." She sucked in a breath. "And the FBI."

L levered himself onto the balls of his feet, so he perched in the chair. Kaye had forgotten he did that. "As well as the Yagami household being on the Space World bus route." He hummed. "He fits Kira's profile in almost every respect, but all of this is circumstantial. We need better evidence."

A moment of silence passed. Kaye glanced between the other two and imagined she could see the gears turning in their skulls. She took another gulp of coffee—milk, two sugars, the way she'd always taken it.

Naomi groaned. Silence broken. "We won't even have the element of surprise anymore. If Light is Kira, he'll know everything we just told you. God, I'm such an _idiot_ ; I should've known to keep it to myself." She leaned forward and cradled her head between her hands.

Kaye nudged her with an elbow. "You were desperate, not dumb."

"What's done is done," L said. "We'll just have to be more careful from now on. What aliases did you give him? We will need to proceed as though _those_ are your real names; I trust this Task Force, but your identities _must_ remain secret if there is even the slightest possibility either of you will come into further contact with Light Yagami."

What made her question her belonging was the fact that Watari had chosen that moment to arrive and asked where the sugar was. Innocuous, but that implied Kaye had put it back in the wrong spot, which threw her even as she re-familiarized herself with the process of how L conducted an investigation. She couldn't remember a time when it didn't go in the cabinet next to the mini-fridge. Kaye couldn't help but feel, suddenly, as though she kept being alienated just as she began to get comfortable. Despite all of that, it was not until L neglected to introduce her to the Kira Task Force, that she was tangibly aware of the gulf between them.

 _"Everyone,"_ L addressed the Task Force in Japanese, and the part of Kaye that wasn't nervous about all the new people was surprised to find that she was getting better at the language. _"I would like to introduce you to Miss Shoko Maki. She has been an associate of mine for quite a few years. Recently, she has retired as a government agent to help us work on the Kira Investigation."_

She waited a few beats for her own introduction, but it did not come.

It was like he had forgotten she existed.

The idea that she had ever had much to do with solving their previous cases had forever be up for playful debate between the two of them four years ago. Kaye realistically knew that she had always acted more as moral support than anything else—especially when L didn't need her to act as a liaison. However, in the past, L had made a point to always treat her as though she were vital to whatever operation he was running. "And this is my partner" seemed more attached to her name than any alias that had followed the phrase itself.

This was not four years ago. It was a late morning in 2004, and she stood in the lounge just behind Naomi with the curious gaze of five Kira Task Force members upon her.

 _The only way out is through, she thought._ She threw on a smile and cocked a jaunty hip. _"I'm Kaye Tyler! I've been a…civilian consultant of L's since he started this job."_ Perhaps it was too much—played their relationship too close for this investigation, for these people—but she was not about to let herself be forgotten again. She cemented her place.

L, though he appeared unfazed by her introduction, had a small frown turning down the corners of his mouth. " _Yes_ ," he continued as though neither of them had noticed the exclusion, " _they have uncovered some valuable information and are planning to remain here to assist the investigation. Both of them have my unconditional trust, so feel free to discuss anything case-related with them_."

All eight of the room's occupants regarded one another. Kaye gathered that her and Naomi's late addition made the NPA agents wary, until the oldest gentleman separated himself from the pack.

He bowed to Naomi, and then to her. " _A pleasure to meet you, I am Chief Superintendent Yagami. I look forward to working with you both._ "

And just like that she and Naomi Misora were welcomed on to the Kira Task Force.


	12. Play

_A/N: Heyo! Alright, so this one was a bit of a wait, but I think I got it out pretty quickly. It's definitely chunkier than the last few updates, like damn Light saunters in and suddenly the word count doubles I swear (this chapter is 7k?). So, another heads up: I'm playing a bit fast and loose with some of the established backstory and claiming creative liberties. Some of the things L claimed in this episode I'm calling Ohba and Obata out on, specifically the British Junior Tennis Champion thing because come on there's no way there isn't some kind of record of that. Oh, also, I'm trying to let K and L err on the side of British English as much as possible, so anyone feel free to brit-pick this in the comments? I'm also using all of the Task Force's alias's apart from Chief Yagami's, bc they don't really trust K or Naomi yet so they probably wouldn't use their real names around them, but K already knew who the chief was? idk it makes sense in my head. Anyway, this is it, this is the chapter. I'll readily admit that while I have a timeline that outlines over about 20-years of in-universe story (pls don't shame me, I overthought this story for ten (10) years) I absolutely don't have a clue what I'm doing. Aaaaand K may or may not be back on her bullshit. Once again, thank everyone so much for reviewing and showing interest in this I'm over the moon about it. The last two chapters especially showed an uptick in views and that makes me so happy!  
_ _ **Labloom:** as the only guest to review recently, I didn't get a chance to respond to any of them until this update. Thank-you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying so far, and your chapter-by-chapter reactions made me smile!_

 _Tl;dr: L's backstory is bullshit convoluted so we're mostly ignoring it, the English call it Paper, Scissors, Stone, and I don't think I'll ever recover from that information. I would also die for all of you._

* * *

Chapter Ten | Play

"So, when you say you've _thought_ about bringing Light Yagami onto the Task Force, what you _mean_ is that you've _literally_ told him you're L despite the whole secrecy thing, oh and the fact that he's _literally_ your _number one suspect._ "

"In essence, yes."

Kaye stared at the slouched lines of L's back in incredulity. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard." She twirled the tennis racket in her hand a few times. "It completely defeats the point of the whole anonymity thing. Might as well tell any old nobody on the street who you are now. Wanna go back to Westchester Correctional and tell that lot _you're_ the one that put them all there? Because that's essentially what you're doing right now."

It was a good thing that he wasn't facing her—it was probably the only reason why she gave her two cents at all, surely if he were to turn around she'd have go right back to walking on eggshells about the whole situation.

Forty-eight hours was not a long time to mend a friendship.

Not that she thought L even realized that there was something in need of repairing. She wasn't sure what his game was—she was _never_ completely sure what his game was. And in the past that kind of thing had been fine. She had always been more than happy, for the most part, to go along for the ride—he'd always listened to her when she thought he was being an idiot, so she was content. At the moment she was thinking that, as far as L was concerned, they could pick up right where they left off. It looked like that was how he was conducting himself toward her at any rate.

Maybe from his perspective that was the way to go. But from hers it was an inadequate tactic.

L sighed and turned around to face her. He gently plucked the racket from her hands with two fingers. "It's not that I don't understand where you're coming from. I simply feel like you're being overly caustic about it." He met her eye for a second, before voluntarily looking away. He seemed to be cognizant of _that_ , if nothing else. "It's not as though I've never been in the presence of our prime suspects before."

Kaye huffed. "Yes," she allowed. "But never as yourself."

The two fell into another painful silence.

Thankfully, it was at least a nice day—a nicer day than there had been recently, and Kaye had been enjoying the sunny skies and warmer weather before L and Naomi had cornered her earlier. L's plans to spend "recreational" time with Light Yagami didn't seem to bother Naomi as much as it did her. She appeared to have much more trust in L's ability to protect himself against Kira than Kaye did.

Kaye kicked at the closest patch of To-Oh grass. She'd managed to wear a nice little pit into the ground with the toe of her left foot, and it was doing wonders for her nerves, really. Every once and a while a student would wander by to stare at them, whether because of their appearances or because they'd been standing in the same spot for over half an hour, Kaye couldn't be arsed to care.

"It's not as me," L said. "At best it's as the _World's Greatest Detective_." Curiously, his tone turned somewhat mocking as he said his title aloud. He even rolled his eyes. "Besides, it's only tennis."

For a moment, Kaye had nothing to say to that. She turned her attention, instead, to the fact that there was still a brisk chill in the air every time a breeze went by despite the sunshine. She must have spent much too long in LA, because even though she was wearing a jacket the next breeze chilled her and she shivered. "Sometimes I wonder," she told him finally.

The statement, by itself, was really untrue. She _didn't_ wonder. She never had, and she had tried so staunchly for years to not think about him that there certainly had been no wondering going on. Beside that, she wasn't even sure whether she was referring to the distance he was placing between himself and being a detective, or whether he was _only_ playing a game of tennis with Light Yagami.

He raised his eyebrow at her. She didn't elaborate.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway, does it? We're already here."

"And here comes Light." L looked over her shoulder. "You remember why I asked you here?'

Kaye rolled her eyes. "Watch him, don't bother pretending we don't know each other. You wanna see if he tries to get closer to me or Naomi."

"He will. Try that is." He raised his arm. " _Light! Over here!_ "

Kaye turned to follow the direction that L was calling out in in time to see Light's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. He was not as far away as she thought he was, and he closed the distance between them with a few short jogs. " _Ryuga_ , _and—Miss Tyler, was it?_ "

Her movement placed her more in-line with L than she had been. She took the opportunity to nudge him with her elbow, and she could tell he didn't expect it because he actually stumbled slightly. "You've always picked pretty shit alias's," she told him. Her voice was artificially jovial, and she could tell her shoulders were far too tight to come across as completely at ease. "Of all the pop stars, in all the world, you had to pick that one."

L looked affronted. "He's one of the most popular stars in Japan today. It's a perfectly respectable name."

She snorted, then turned to Light. " _Feel free to call me K."_

There was a new significance to the name that she knew was not there when they had first met. Kaye could tell that Light put something together in that moment, though she had no idea what it might have been, but she felt the beginning of a change. Felt herself begin to slide away from "Kaye Tyler" and back into something familiar—like slipping on an old favorite pair of jeans. For Light, she could only figure that what had shifted was the context. Standing next to L, any one-letter name probably came off as suspicious. But that would do the job they wanted.

" _I'm impressed that you remembered the 'Tyler' part though,_ " she continued. " _We didn't meet for very long._ "

Light laughed. His eyes were flicking back between both her and L, but that was the only part of him that had become undone. The rest of him remained as prim and composed as the day they had first interacted. " _No, we didn't,_ " he agreed, and he laughed again. " _I'm sorry; I have to admit I'm a bit confused._ "

" _Mm_ , _yes. I assumed you might be,_ " L cut in. " _But we'll have time to talk about that later. Right now, I believe you and I have a game of tennis to be getting on with._ " He switched to English briefly. "Were you planning on subbing in for the loser K?"

Kaye looked at him in surprise. When he and Naomi had suggested she accompany L on this particular outing neither of them had mentioned her playing. Presumably, Naomi hadn't because she did not know that Kaye used to be decent at tennis once upon a time; L because this was his obscure, roundabout profiling of Light Yagami, and she had no real place in it other than to throw the boy off.

"Nah, it's been years since I've held a racket." She waved at them both. "You go psychoanalyze each other's tennis forms."

Light shot her a backward glance as L dragged them both off to the tennis court, brow furrowed. It was clear that he did not want to leave Kaye behind, but Kaye was also not keen on being around either of them for much longer.

She needed some time to breathe before she was stuck in close quarters with them for a whole meal. Lunch—that would be the real test.

They had been standing at the top of decent-sized hill. The campus tennis courts were at the bottom of it so, if Kaye were to stay where she was, she'd have a birds-eyed view of their game. They weren't far enough away that shouldn't make out some details as they set up. She could just see the white stripes going around the collar of Light's shirt, but their movement was more than discernable.

L reached up to adjust his hair so that it wouldn't fall into his eyes. Light stepped up to the net to ask him something. The game began.

And it began _hard_.

L served, and Kaye cold hear the _THWAK_ of the racket hitting the tennis ball all the way from where she was standing. He sent it careening toward the other side of the court, past Light who flinched away from the missile a second after it had shot by him and sent the fence surrounding the court rattling. Light was frozen in place for five total seconds, before he stood from his ready-crouch to retrieve the ball. L was strong for someone who looked like they'd been recently exhumed.

 _Not to psychoanalyze his form_ , Kaye thought, _but he really is_ convinced _Light is Kira_.

This…this game wasn't that much of a test. She supposed as Light volleyed the ball back over the net with just as much intensity as L, that it hadn't ever _been_ a test. It also wasn't much of a game either. Which, she figured, but…the level of competitive energy was…Kaye thought they were trying to prove a point to one another. She assumed they knew what the point was, but she certainly didn't.

A small crowd had begun to gather, and at one point a ref decided to get involved, and back and forth the tennis ball went and it really should have been on fire with the intensity that it was being assaulted.

Kaye imagined she could also see the gears turning in their heads enough o set their brains on fire. The amount of second-guessing, deduction, and one upmanship must have been wearing their braincells thin. It looked exhausting. Almost painful.

Then, something in the mood of the court changed. Neither player had eased their intensity, but suddenly it seemed as though they both concluded that something had to change, and so Light darted forward toward the net.

 _THWAK_ went the tennis ball form Light's racket, headed for the side of the court L was not. He dove for the tennis ball, Light following in case he managed to hit it, but Kaye and everyone watching could tell that it wasn't his point, and Light's game.

L's racket brushed against the ball, pushing it forward but not over the net—a valiant last hurrah. He hit the pavement shoulder-first.

Kaye winced, her shoulder throbbing in sympathy. But she had to admit, seeing L sprawled on his back on the tennis court was funny. Schadenfreude. Light was already headed around the net to help him out, and Kaye jogged down the steps of the hill to join them.

-:-

Despite her best efforts to avoid their battle of deduction, Kaye found herself a moment alone with Light Yagami almost immediately after the match. Not to plan. At least, not to her plan.

"Miss Tyler!" There was a set of locker rooms for the athletes that she was waiting in front of, on a bench. She had two bags' worth of tennis equipment at her feet that she was keeping half an eye on.

Light had obviously forgone taking a shower in favor of managing a minute alone with her. He had a fresh change of clothes on, but otherwise bore no signs of primping.

"Honestly," she told him when he was close enough to talk to, "call me K. I'm really not a Miss anything."

Light shifted in place. He tried to catch her eye, but she was resolutely looking more at his left ear. "Are you sure that's allowed? Ryuga seems pretty adamant about—" he looked around, almost like he was making a show of it. "You know."

Kaye shrugged. "It's my name. I can decide what to do with it. This is probably saying too much, but technically I'm not a police officer, so whatever protocol he's trying to make them follow doesn't necessarily apply to me." She stood and handed him his gym bag. "But you wanted to ask me something else, while L wasn't around."

In and of itself, Kaye did not find that suspicious. In fact, it might have been more suspicious if he _hadn't_ tried to get her alone. She was not sure what L was banking on happening—and he almost certainly expected something like this to happen, though he would've taken a shower regardless, he rarely took more than a few minutes in public ones—but, honorary member of the Task Force or not, she would not use that time to interrogate Light. Nor would she overanalyze everything the kid did. He was a kid. It had been a hot minute since she had been seventeen, but not that long. She couldn't imagine what kind of scrutiny he was operating under—for all she knew it could lead anybody to act overly suspicious. Besides, she knew what this conversation was going to be about.

"Um, yeah. I just wanted to ask you about what you and Miss Maki were doing at the NPA that morning."

Kaye had a few options to go with there.

She could tell the truth. But she wouldn't. The truth was too complicated, and she was still trying to sort it out herself. That said, it was too personal anyway. Kaye considered, then spoke.

"' _Ryuga'_ ," she placed air-quotes around the alias—it was really one of his more awful ones, "gets stuck in his head sometimes. We _lost_ touch before the case even started, and needed to get back _in_ touch, so we went to where he'd be pooling his manpower—for the record, easiest way to get his attention."

"So, you've known each other for a while?"

Kaye raised an eyebrow. "Do you really need to ask? Yeah, we've known each other 'a while.' Anyway, when you claimed to be a member of the Task Force I was intrigued." She smiled at him. "You were lying, obviously, but it was a pretty ballsy lie. Wanted to see where you'd go with it."

"So, it was a test?"

She shrugged. "Not of anything in particular. Shoko and I didn't have access to Kira's official profile at that point, so it's not like either of us knew you were a suspect or anything. Which, bit dubious that."

Light straightened. "You think Ryuga's _wrong_?" He asked her like he was surprised she might consider questioning L's judgement, which…could have been warranted. She didn't exactly know how his interactions with the detective had been playing out so far.

"Not wrong," she replied. Said detective was finally making his way from the shower, and Kaye couldn't see his raised eyebrow, but she could sense its existence. "Just… dubious."

"Ah," Light said, then, "I'm officially a suspect?"

Oops.

L leaned around Light and scooped up his equipment bag. "Yes, I had meant to tell you when you inevitably asked us to coffee, but it looks like K's beat me to it."

To cover her slipup, she shrugged. "Not a mind reader, L. I thought that was why Light was so determined to beat you at tennis. That was a vicious game you two."

"I'll admit, I was suspicious about Ryuga's offer to play. But I couldn't see any ulterior motive; I suppose being a suspect gives this a lot more sense."

L hummed. "Don't pretend to be so modest Light. You haven't said as much, but there's not an insignificant chance that you've thought you were as suspect from the beginning. Now, let's go find a place to sit down, there are some things I'd rather not speak of in the open like this."

"Of course," Light nodded. He pivoted on his heel and began to lead them away from the bench they had been crowding around. "There's a coffee shop not too far from here that we can go to. It's a pretty private place to talk at."

Without looking, L reached out and curled his fingers around the curve of Kaye's elbow—the same place he'd touched when she had arrived at the hotel room—and a chunk of Kaye's attention zeroed in on the action. It wasn't as though she did anything as obvious as look down at L's hand, but it was a near thing. She tensed, briefly…. decided to let him keep it there, so long as he didn't use the contact to pull her along.

Light led them in relative silence to a small coffee café about a block away from campus. The inside was cozy, filled with warm colors and tall booths formed an almost maze-like interior. It made for a space where every seat was nestled in a private corner—perfect to take a sweetheart on a date, but just as perfect for a suspect of mass murder to be interrogated in discreet.

Which was not the intended consequence, she was sure, but either way they benefited. She stepped up to the counter with Light, and L wandered off to secure a place to sit.

Two coffee's: one black mostly sugar, one barely sweetened with cream.

L hadn't seated himself when they approached with their drinks, choosing instead to lean on his chosen table and chew, absent minded, on the skin of his thumb. Gross, she thought he'd managed to kick that habit.

"Here," she said passing L the black coffee so he'd stop chewing, and slid into the seat opposite Light.

The boy had a dodgy look about him. _Finally_ , she couldn't help but think. It was unusual for anyone to keep composed for as long as Light had been, but she could tell by the set of his shoulders that he was beginning to let signs of stress show. Worry, concern, something. Even people convinced of their own innocence (and actually innocent people) were stressed during interrogations and tended to become annoyed at being falsely accused. Light was still composed, but he was tense. Kaye counted that as a good sign.

"So, you really think I'm Kira?" he asked.

"I think there is a possibility that you _might_ be Kira." L clambered into the booth next to her, and Kaye made an effort to dodge his knees. She shrunk into the corner of the booth and the wall, settling down to be ignored for the moment. She doubted either of them was going to find her very interesting for a while. "K made it sound far more drastic than it is. Realistically, it's about a one percent chance."

"I see."

"Suspicions aside," he continued, "as soon as I can verify that you are _not_ Kira, and that your deductive skills are as good as I think they are, I would like nothing more than to invite you to participate in the investigation."

Light nodded and folded his palms together on the table. "Well, I had some questions, but I think they can wait until the two of you are sure I'm not Kira."

"If you insist." L dug around his equipment bag for a moment before pulling out a file. He withdrew a series of photographs from it and spread them across the table. "I was hoping you wouldn't object to a test of your deductive reasoning."

Kaye had seen these photos. He had given them to Naomi to look over the night before. They were from much earlier in the case, before the FBI had even gotten involved, when, in general, little was known about Kira and Kira's abilities.

Since receiving them, they had gone ignored. Every once and a while someone would throw out a suggestion regarding them and their message, but L had really only taken them as evidence of Kira's psychological profile and had neglected to consider them much further.

"Hindsight being what it is," L had told them, "Kira might have been hinting that he doesn't need a heart attack to kill. At the time, however, I took it at face value."

"That's fair," Naomi had assessed, wrinkling her nose at the message. "The message is mocking, and they still all died of heart attacks."

"This is a message we received from Kira," the L of the present was saying. "I was hoping you would be able to make something of it? If you agree to the test of course."

"I don't see the harm—it could be fun."

Light pulled the photos toward him, paused, and then began examining them, flipping them around and rearranging them. "Well, when you look at the first line of each photo, it looks like Kira's left a message for you." He reached out to place the pictures in order. " _'L, do you know, gods of death love apples?'_ but there are obvious print numbers on the back of each photo. If you arrange them in _that_ order you get—" he paused, proceeding to arrange the photos in the alternate order "— _'L, do you know, love apples gods of death'_ which doesn't make much sense, so I don't think it was meant to be read in this order."

He sat back and waited for L to speak, apparently done, but…

"That's not a deduction," Kaye said before L could speak.

She had both of their attention immediately. Light's sudden eye contact was sharp, surprised, and if she looked hard enough she would almost say it was assessing. L pinched the side of her thigh underneath the table. Rather than breaking eye contact like she wanted to, or swat at L's hand Kaye held Light's gaze as she spoke to be sure she was taken seriously. "You solved the puzzle in front of you, you didn't come to a conclusion about anything else."

Light's eyes narrowed. L pinched her harder, and she broke eye contact with Light to make brief, fierce eye contact at him. "What? If we're testing his deductive reasoning, he needs to actually make a deduction." L quit pinching her but looked annoyed just the same.

Light chuckled. "You're right; I shouldn't have assumed that was what you were asking for. It's so obvious that you probably knew it already." He took a sip of coffee then proceeded to study the photos again, more carefully this time. "Well…if Kira did leave you this message then he's clearly messing around with you. Either way you read it, it doesn't _mean_ anything—we all know gods of death don't exist—so he must have been trying to tell you something else. Probably in how he sent the message."

"Impressive," L said, voice tight—though she doubted Light would notice. "Truly remarkable. But only partially correct."

"Excuse me?"

Kaye was also curious. Light's deduction had been technically perfect—exactly the same conclusion L had come to months ago... Which, now that she stopped and thought about it, was probably not what L had wanted. It wasn't like he'd told her what he'd be doing, apart from interrogating Light or why she was to come along. Had she missed something?

Was _she_ was also undergoing some kind of test as well?

A white-hot flash of rage heated Kaye's cheeks, and for a moment she seriously considered punching the detective beside her. L had some goddamn nerve on him. She took a harsh sip of her coffee, downing half the mug in one long pull as she tried to focus on not cluing either of them in to her moment of clarity. The coffee wasn't hot anymore and sipping it didn't quite do anything to keep her hand from shaking in anger.

She didn't think he was testing whether or not she was Kira, but she swore to god if he was putting her through some kind of loyalty assessment, she would hop on the first flight back to Los Angeles.

Regardless, she was there; she had to put up with being a guinea pig for a bit longer.

She went to set her mug back on the tabletop with more force than was necessary. But the cup was prevented from making a satisfactory clink by L sliding the file folder underneath it at the last second. A bit of liquid sloshed over the lip.

"Careful," he muttered to her, and for some reason a lot of her anger dissipated. He wasn't looking at her, too busy brandishing a fourth photograph at Light. "Your deduction regarding Kira's potential motive was in complete alignment with my own initial assessment," he said, "however, your deduction is only partially correct because there are, in fact, four photographs."

He placed the last picture down on the table next to Light's second arrangement. Her fluency reading Japanese was much rustier than her spoken Japanese was turning out to be. She still managed to sound out the new sentence anyway.

" _'L, do you know, gods of death who love apples, have red hands?'_ "

Light paused visibly.

"That's unfair," his voice held a tint of petulance. "From what you gave me, my deduction was perfect."

" _Near_ perfect," L corrected. "The fact of the matter is, there were four photographs. And you still only reached a deduction because K was kind enough to remind you that you hadn't made one in the first place." He lifted his thumb to his mouth. Kaye resisted the urge to yank it back down.

Light huffed a sigh the leather booth creaking as he leaned back. "Well, you've got me there."

For a moment, no one said anything. Light lifted his own coffee mug for a sip, and L began to shuffle in his seat, stacking a few cups of extra cream that had been left at the table. The silence wasn't uncomfortable, she felt. The quiet bustle of the café and the murmuring of other patrons played into the white noise of the room, and overall Kaye figured her companions were spending the time thinking.

"Ryuga, K, may I ask you both a question?"

"Go for it."

"Yes, we are here to talk after all. That goes both ways."

"Uh, sure," Light sipped his coffee again. "I just— I can't help but think that this whole conversation seems a bit futile." He gestured to the pictures still spread between them. "None of this will actually prove I'm not Kira, in fact, it probably places me under further suspicion—which seems counterproductive if you really do want me on the case. And even then, how can _I_ be sure that you are L as you say you are? No offense, Miss Tyler, but I don't exactly know you. I've been fine playing along until now, but if you're going to accuse _me_ of being Kira, then I think I deserve to be absolutely sure that neither of you are Kira either."

Kaye fiddled with the handle of her cup. "And what would convince you of that?"

"If I could just get a third-party confirmation from somebody I trust—I know my father and some other NPA officers are on the Task Force right now, if I had their word that you are who you say you are then I'd have no reason to disbelieve them."

Kaye could hear the subtle request in his words. It was more than a matter of calling Chief Yagami on the phone and asking him to confirm that they were indeed L and a civilian Task Force member.

"You want to come to headquarters," she said.

"I understand if that isn't possible, but it's the only way I can think of to be sure."

L slurped his coffee. It was the first time he had bothered with it. "I never said that you weren't welcome at Task Force headquarters."

Kaye sighed. The way that this investigation was progressing she honestly should not have been surprised. He'd been breaking their old protocol left, right, and center since well before she and Naomi had caught up with him.

 _New type of criminal, new type of tactic_ , she imagined he'd say. Yeah right. As though compromising himself was a valid new type of tactic.

"I see no reason to prevent you from being there," L continued with another slurp. "Even if you _are_ Kira I stand to benefit."

Kaye rolled her eyes, paused, then pinched his hip hard enough for him to sit down properly to shuffle away. "You stand to get killed if you keep this up, bloody hell. No offense, Light; this whole thing is _highly_ unorthodox at best."

"I don't doubt it."

"In _any_ case," L rubbed his hip with one hand, and began to gather up the photographs with the other, "if headquarters is the proof that you require Light I see no reason to keep you from it."

"Oh, I get it," Light appeared to perk up. "Whether or not I am Kira, you'll either get Light Yagami's help on the investigation, or give Kira ample opportunity to slip and reveal himself. That's why you don't mind."

L smirked. "Perceptive."

A mobile rang.

-:-

Kaye had not followed Light and L to the hospital. She instead grabbed L's equipment bag and headed back to the hotel.

"Call me when you find out Chief Yagami's condition," she told L firmly, Light waiting anxiously further down the pavement. "I'll let the rest of the Task Force in on the news. Hopefully…" she hadn't needed to finish.

Hopefully it wasn't Kira.

It hadn't taken long for L to call, after all To-Oh Medical was the closest emergency room to both their hotel and the university itself. She was still in the car when her mobile went off.

" _Chief Yagami is fine_ ," she relayed to the assembled NPA agents as soon as she got through the door to their hotel suite. " _It_ was _a heart attack, but it mostly likely was unrelated to Kira. According to L, there's no reason he shouldn't be able to return to light duties within the next few days._ "

Agent Matsui had been wringing his hands together and pacing by the window when she had walked in. He hadn't ceased when she gave them the news, but as soon as she finished speaking he stopped and turned to her, striding away from the window in agitation. " _What caused it though? We can't know whether or not it was Kira unless we know what caused it!_ "

Naomi caught the hem of his suitcoat when he paced back by with a sharp tug. " _Calm down, Matusi,_ " she said. " _Chief Yagami isn't exactly a spring chicken—he could have collapsed from anything. If it were Kira he'd be dead._ "

" _L says it was stress,_ " Kaye said. She shifted her weight, uncomfortable under their intense scrutiny. She and Naomi had only been around for a few days, at best—they hadn't gotten used to her yet, and none of them seemed to understand why she was there. Asahi in particular had, a few times since she'd arrived, expressed interest in why "Ryuzaki" kept _her_ around, Naomi could at least provide FBI-grade experience. Kaye took Matsui's place by the window, hoping to get out of the middle of the room. " _Watari is headed to get L now and bring him back here. As of now, you've all been dismissed until further notice,_ AND _,"_ she raised her voice over their sudden onslaught of protests, " _We don't need any more of you collapsing, because you haven't been sleeping. Kira can wait a weekend._ "

They'd left. Reluctant, but one by one they'd wrapped up what they each were working on over the next fifteen minutes and had gone home for the weekend.

Naomi stretched from her kitchen-side chair. "So," she meandered along the length of the room to Kaye, adjusting her sling as she went, "what do you think of our prime suspect?"

"Light?"

"He's our prime suspect, isn't he? You're the one who spent all day with him."

Kaye shrugged and looked back out the window. "He seems like a smart kid. I get why L suspects him. He fits Kira's psych profile, not to mention the fact that he lied about being a Task Force member however many months ago." She crossed her arms. "Still, he's barely eighteen."

Naomi placed her good hand on Kaye's shoulder. "That's still old enough to be held responsible."

Kaye snorted. "For petty crimes and bar fights maybe. I don't know Naomi, it just doesn't sit right for me. Kira doesn't have to _be_ a high school student to know the schedule of one." She shrugged the other woman's hand off. "I don't want to talk about it now. We'll have time to go over it later. He doesn't act like a genocidal maniac, but I suppose you and I both know they never do."

Naomi rubbed her sling and scuffed a foot along the carpet. "Look, I know you're thinking that I'm so caught up in catching Raye's killer that I'm not considering the bigger picture, but…" she sighed, "I _know_ things aren't always black and white, K. If Light really _is_ Kira, well— it's fucked up. And whatever got him to that point is fucked up too. It really is, but kids are just as capable of being killers as adults are."

"Yeah." Down below the light's and bustle of Tokyo nightlife proceeded as always. Despite everything, people were still finding ways to go about their days, still go out for nights on the town, even with Kira hanging over everybody's head. "I just…. There's something bigger going on."

Naomi yawned. Kaye turned away from the large windows to consider her. She was still on a lot of pain killers, and Kaye could tell by the tightness in her right shoulder how much she needed one in that moment. The rest of her was slumped, and there were the beginnings of bags under her eyes.

"Go sleep," she said, nudging the other woman in the leg with her foot. "You're technically under orders to take it easy same as the rest of them."

"Yeah, think I might. Whatever is going on, we'll figure it out K."

"Course we will." The words felt hollow, like a chocolate rabbit you expected to be solid, or something more serious. She knew she should be more confident in their abilities. But she also thought if she were really confident in their ability she probably wouldn't have stayed in Japan in the first place.

"Don't forget to get some rest too!" Naomi called over her shoulder as she walked out into the hallway. Kaye made a vague sound of affirmation and listened to the door swing shut behind her friend.

She would not be able to sleep even if she laid on a bed, in the dark, for an hour. There were too many things to think about, and all of them were vying for her conscious attention. What did she really think of Light? What was today all about? What if Kira killed one of them? Would she forgive L by then? Did she not forgive him already? Should repairing their friendship even be a priority all things considered? _Why, who, what how_ over and over again until the edges of her vision greyed out, and she couldn't hear much apart form her internal monologue.

"K?"

She felt another feather light touch to her elbow, and a cool rush of adrenaline coursed through her.

She flinched away from the touch, spinning and lashing out with her opposite hand for her assailant only to have her wrist caught in a firm grip.

"K? _K._ It's me; it's only me."

She relaxed her arm without breaking L's grip. "Well, I can see that _now_ , thanks. What did you forget I don't like being sneaked up on?"

He let her go and took a step back. "You were…better about it the last time I saw you." His hand went into the pocket of his jeans.

"Maybe yeah, but then I went and had a building dropped on me."

It had not been the building dropping that had caused the resurgence of anxiety, inability to make eye-contact, or touch-weariness. In fact, that last had had her on edge throughout the day.

She had not liked being in the dark about L's plans regarding Light's interrogation, and though she had volunteered, she had liked breaking the news about Chief Yagami's heart attack to the rest of the Task Force even less. Coupled with L's acting over-familiar and forgetting about her in turns the past few days—she was stretched thin. Emotionally. Or something.

"We're not gonna talk about it," she decided before he could say 'ah yes we should talk about that'.

She liked to think that she was emotionally mature enough to recognize a spiral when she saw one coming, and she did recognize that one was eminent, but with that she also had to recognize that really the emotionally mature thing would be to address the source of the problem. Which she was not about to do.

L opened his mouth like he was about to contradict her anyway, but she plowed forward in her sudden determination to _not talk about it_.

"No, we really aren't going to talk about it. Not tonight. About anything actually." She took a deep breath, put her hands on her hips, and looked him dead in the eye. "We are pretending that nothing bad has ever happened to us ever, and we are going to do _literally_ _anything_ but talk about _any of_ it."

L held up both hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay then, we won't talk about it." The look on his face suggested that he had already deduced what was wrong, and that he definitely thought that they should talk about it—which meant that they would wind up having a conversation later if he had to trick it out of her. But Kaye was a class act in avoidance, and she _would_ put it off.

"Come on." She reached out with forced carelessness and grabbed his sleeve. She started tugging him toward the door. "I saw a ping-pong table somewhere on the way in."

He let Kaye drag him behind her all the way to a room with some exercise equipment and a ping-pong table tucked neatly away in the corner behind some glass so that the balls would not fly into anyone trying to work out. The rubber smell of gym was neither comforting nor distracting, but it was good enough.

She twirled both bats in her hands before handing him the neon orange one. "Paper, Scissors, Stone to see who serves first?"

He huffed. "We haven't played that since we were seven."

"I'm grown up enough now to admit that I like being childish sometimes!" Back when they had been seven, she had been the one to decide that games like Paper, Scissors, Stone were silly, and they were too grown up to do little kid things like that. L had never cared if he were childish. Still didn't probably.

He tucked the bat under his arm and held out a raised fist over an open palm.

She won, and with a triumphant "hah!" served so badly that the ball didn't even make it over the net and hit the ceiling instead.

L considered the ball where it landed for a moment. "Hm. Well, I won't count it against you, but I think maybe I should serve from now on."

His serve caught in the net.

Kaye felt the anxiety, and tension she had been carrying around all day bubble up inside her chest and burst through her throat as a mirth-filled fit of giggles. Sure, the world was in dire straits—held hostage by a serial killer with a non-zero chance of being supernatural and was probably a seventeen-year-old kid in way over his head. And sure, she was a traumatized wreck living in a minefield of potential flashbacks, and L was an insane dickhead.

But his _ping-pong_ serve getting caught in the net was absolutely the funniest thing she had ever seen.

"British Junior Champion at tennis," she gasped, "and you can't even serve a fucking ping-pong ball." She wiped honest-to-god tears from her eyes and used her bat to untangle the ball. "Something tells me we're not really gonna be keeping score in this game, yeah?"

"I suppose not," he sighed. But he didn't really appear annoyed. "But that was only among the kids; it's not like I actually competed."

She tried to serve the ball again, and this time they actually managed to get a few good back-and-forths before it bounced off the table.

"You could have." Kaye was on her hands and knees under the table trying to coax the ball from around one of its legs. "You were good enough that you could have."

"And you were a good enough shot that Mr. Wammy suggested you do it competitively," he countered. "We both had ample opportunity to do other things."

It was his serve, so she tossed him the ball and got her bat ready. Instead of hitting it properly, L tossed it underhand, over the net and only began to use his bat when she volleyed the little ball back at him.

"That's cheating!"

He smirked. "That's fun."


	13. Reflection (1)

_A/N: Hey would you look at this another update! It's only been half a year, which is a bit better than some of my other hiatuses. Special thanks to everyone who's even looked at this story since then, I'm still so psyched that y'all are interested in Symbiotic! This is a shorter update than I've uploaded in a while, but once I finished this section I figured I'd split up all I had planned just so that I could throw you guys a bone ('cause it's been half a year). So, this chapter is technically a two-parter with this update being a flashback and resuming with the Kira Case next chapter which...well, no promises but it shouldn't take half a year for that one to come out since I've a pretty solid idea what that one's gonna be about. Anyway, thanks so much for reading! Please consider leaving a review if you enjoy. I know I'm a slow updater, but rest assured finishing this is a guarantee!_

* * *

Chapter Eleven | Reflection (Part One)

 **February 21, 1992**

It was a clear night. The moon wasn't quite full, and K couldn't remember how to tell if it was waxing or waning or what the difference was in the first place. It didn't matter much. What mattered was that it was a clear night, and a cold one; from her bedroom window she could see that the lawn below was beginning to take on a nice winter frost.

Technically, it was the eve of her fourteenth birthday. But it was also the evening of one of the worst mistakes either of them would ever make. But there was no way for them to know that at the time. It was _dangerous,_ sure…but L was convinced that there was a real case to be made of the London kidnappings; K typically agreed with L; and… _Watari_ had told them that L was forbidden from investigating the matter further. Well. It would only take a few days, maximum.

It would not be the first time they'd sneaked out.

Most of the older kids started doing it once they finally discovered that it was okay to break the rules sometimes. L and K, at that point, had been the oldest of the lot of them. And the fact that the massive bunch of roses on the west side of _Wammy's House for Gifted Children_ could support their combined weight was something they were always willing to take advantage of back then. Having easy secondary access to the House was worth the pricks and scratches you'd get from climbing the plant.

K could tell they were quickly outgrowing it, because the last time they'd sneaked out their combined weight had splintered part of the trellis the roses clung to, so for this venture they'd both sensibly agreed that it would be best to tackle the thing one at a time.

L slid open her bedroom window, keeping one hand on it even though she was sure it had stuck in the frame. She didn't wait for him to have the same realization, instead quickly darting under his arm to sling a leg over the windowsill and head out first.

"Are you _sure_ Roger's asleep then?" she whispered on her way out.

The moonlight made L's eyes shine brightly as he rolled them. " _Yes_. He took two Vicodin for his toothache approximately," he glanced over his shoulder at her alarm clock, which blinked 2:13AM back, "three hours ago now. But that doesn't mean that Annie and B won't wake up, so _please_ get going." He practically shoved her the rest of the way out the window.

She and L scaled the side of the House by the light of the moon, with two backpacks stuffed full of supplies. It was not the first time they had done so, but it was the first time they had planned to stay out well past dawn the next day.

Security was something that Mr. Wammy was not concerned about. Most of the caretakers and staff were live-in—there were typically more than enough adults around to keep the eight or ten children that lived in the House at any given time well in line. But nothing would have stopped L and K that night. They were far too determined to undertake their self-imposed mission.

The grounds of Wammy's House were extensive, but that only meant that once they were far enough down the driveway, they wouldn't need to worry about getting caught. K led the way, crouched low so that she could scurry silently across the crunchy gravel and out of the view of the House's windows. They were making good time if it was only 2:00AM, but it was still a few good kilometers from the nearest train station—the only train that ran before 10:00AM in Westchester left for London at four o'clock sharp—and they'd have to walk the whole way.

"I feel like I could _run_ the whole way to London!" she giggled once they were clear of the House grounds. She skipped ahead a few paces, two-parts adrenaline and one-part nervous energy buzzing through her. It wasn't an unfamiliar thing—she felt excited like this every time she wormed her way into one of L's cases. This time they would actually be there in person though.

Even though she knew he was just as excited as she was, L did not match her pace. He walked briskly to keep from feeling too much of the late February chill, but with nowhere near the same level of energy. "You'd die of exhaustion not even halfway there," he commented, dry, his voice muffled by the way he had scrunched his chin into the collar of his coat. "You'll sleep on the train the whole way as it is."

She made a face, scrunching her nose, and huffed. "Yeah, alright. Still though, it's exciting, isn't it?"

"It's dangerous." His eyebrows twisted and furrowed in a way that made her think he was judging.

"Fuck off, L." K walked back and hooked her arm though his, roughly tugging him against her side. It was as much an admonishment as it was a friendly gesture, though mostly it was an excuse to keep warmer. "Just cause I'm stupid compared to you doesn't mean I'm an idiot. I'm about to get kidnapped for god's sake, I know it's dangerous."

He couldn't side-eye her as well as he probably would have ordinarily through the coat, but she felt him pinch her arm even through her own layers. "Then why do you insist on calling it exciting?"

"Cause you're gonna nail these guys, easy." She shrugged. It was really that simple. He hadn't lost a case yet, and she didn't think he was going to. "You're gonna catch them, and we'll get to say, 'I told you so' to Mr. Wa, er, _Watari_ , and a bunch of homeless kids are gonna be a bit safer for a while."

They continued on their way in silence for a while. Arm-in-arm it was a warmer journey than it would have been, which K was grateful for. And she didn't mind the quiet. K watched their breath smoke out of them in puffs that petered off into wispy curls on the cold air.

"They won't stay safe."

"Who?"

"The kids…anyone we help really. They won't stay safe. This world is full of rotten people, K, and in spite of what we do no one is going to _stay_ safe."

K tipped back her head to consider the words while looking at the sky overhead. _He's not wrong really_ , she thought. Yet, at the same time it seemed quite a bit like missing the point.

"There's a guy in Greek Mythology," she said after a while, "named Sisyphus or something? We talked about it in class a few weeks ago. I don't remember what he did, but he was punished by having to push a huge boulder up a hill every day—cause every time he reached the top the boulder would just roll back down, and he'd have to start all over again. I think the world's a bit like that. And we're just gonna have to keep pushing that boulder up the hill over and over."

"That's not reassuring."

"Probably not," she agreed. 'But I reckon that there are more people trying to help you push the boulder up the hill than not—other detectives, the police, _me_." Here she shoved him with a grin. She saw him smile despite himself. "It's _tedious_ , yeah…but I think the point isn't to get rid of, necessarily, but to make it easier. _You're_ making it easier by being a bloody brilliant detective."

He almost snorted, but it came out huffier than one. She elbowed him again; he pushed her back, and both of them zig-zagged on the shoulder of the road because they remained locked at the elbow.

"I am concerned, still." L admitted after another short silence. He stopped suddenly, the grip on her arm tightening so she would too. It hadn't seemed as though they'd been on their way for very long. But she recognized that they were almost halfway to the station already, and once they reached it, it would officially be too late to make it back to the House before morning.

"You kept saying how daft this whole venture was in the beginning. I _know_ you changed your mind," he continued before she could protest, "but I keep thinking about it. I wonder if the cost of, as you say, pushing the boulder, will be worth it this time."

K let go of his arm. Gently unhooking her elbow from where his squeezed so she could face him and look him in the eye. Admittedly, she _still_ thought the whole venture was daft, but for different reasons now. It was daft that they were trying to do something this big on their own, and she had said as much _at length_. But it was also daft that Watari wouldn't let L investigate in the first place. And, once she'd thought about it, she had figured that they were going to start investigating things on their own sooner rather than later. At her behest, they'd come up with a plan, then a backup plan, and then made the backup plan the real plan, and had generally spent a lot of time thinking about what they were going to do before they'd actually realized that, yeah, they were going to do it.

At one point he suggested going alone, but that was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

"It's mad," she said. "Completely crazy, and there's no way that we won't get hurt. But, and I really shouldn't have to say this, I trust you." She poked his chest. "And your brain." She poked his forehead. "And _you_ trust _me_ to tell you if things get too bad, and we should head back. So, _really_ , it all even out." She let that sink in for a beat. "And anyway, I already can't sleep sometimes. Cause of the stuff we've seen. I can't imagine this will make that any worse than it is."

L grimaced but didn't say anything else, and K could tell that they were done talking about it once he straightened his shoulders. Quietly, he held out his arm. Quietly, she took it. And quietly they walked, arm-in-arm, to the train station.


End file.
